The Longest Race

The Longest Race is a tale, a fable of skill, passion, rage, love, and finally, peace. Bahadur, a young boy, is the son of a humble watchman in the small town of Rajpur at the foothills of the Himalayas. Fame and fortune seem a far cry from the life he is destined to lead, until he wins a race in school and discovers in himself a passion for long-distance running. Morning after morning, he gets up at dawn to run—barefoot—in the hills . . . Finally, he is selected to compete in the state championship. Watching him win is Greg Abberley, the legendary Scottish coach who has trained some of England’s greatest distance runners. He is in India on a special mission to find young talent. And the boy he chooses to take back with him to Edinburgh is Bahadur. In Abberley, Bahadur finds a coach who is a visionary, a guru who lets him follow the rhythm of his body and spirit. Bahadur is on his way to becoming a long-distance phenomenon, winning a major marathon in England. The Olympics beckon but when the young man reaches the peak of his powers, he is plunged into the strange world of Indian sport, and the bureaucracy, politics and jealousies in which it is mired leaves him scarred and disillusioned. He abandons running until, years later, a moment of crisis forces him to return to it, showing him how the human spirit can triumph even when the odds are stacked against it.