In 1977, Tom McGrath crossed the United States in the record time of 53 days and seven minutes. Few would have guessed that he was a bar owner or that he would fight harder to stay sober than he ever did to keep running. With countless charity runs organized all over the world and his 10th bar still up and running in New York City, the question still remains, “Who is Tom McGrath?” "A compelling tale of an authentic man. Tom McGrath has lived a life with two great themes, one as a fearless ultramarathon runner, the other a harrowing descent into alcoholism. His is a story of rare heroic athletic achievement and personal survival. I could not put it down.” - David Blaikie Ultra marathon World "A monument whose inscription offers truth to all who visit: the drinker; the smoker; the athlete; the Christian; the philosopher.” - Jesse Riley Trans-Am Race Director 92-96

The Black Sheep: The Fittest / Unfittest Bar Owner In New York

Biographies & Memoirs

McGrath, Tom

Beasley, Jared

Memoirs

Tom McGrath

The story of Al Howie is a remarkable and at times unbelievable adventure into the heart of the longest races in the world with one of modern history’s most eccentric ultra-marathon runners.If you ran 2225 kilometres from Winnipeg to Ottawa, you’d be crazy. If the day after you arrived in Ottawa you showed up to a 24-hour race and started knocking back beers, you would be stupid. If you then ran the 195 kilometre, 24-hour race, won it, and ran all the way back to Winnipeg, you’d be a true freak of nature. If later, at 46 years old, you ran 7200 kilometres across Canada in the world-record time of 72 days, 10 hours, and then followed it up two weeks later by breaking another world record (which happened to be your own) in the longest certified race on Earth, you’d be a mega-distance alien. In all of this, if you were forever broke, using fake names and aliases, teetering on the edge of sanity, and doing it all in three-ounce racing flats, you’d be Al Howie.
Based on interviews with Howie himself during his final two years (he died in 2016), Jared Beasley’s book takes the reader into the incomprehensible distances of a legendary runner and the amazing and complex world of an astounding figure in modern sports history.

In Search of Al Howie

Rocky Mountain Books

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Books by Beasley, Jared