The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports

A profound meditation on what running can teach us about our limits and our lives by a record-setting distance runner who is now the CEO of The Atlantic. “This is not just an engaging memoir about running. It’s a meditation on what it takes to marshal and maintain motivation.”—ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again “Endlessly surprising, revelatory, and heart-rending.”—ANNA WINTOUR For Nicholas Thompson, running has always been about something more than putting one foot in front of another. He ran his first mile at age five, using it as a way to connect with his father as his family fell apart. As a young man, it was a sport that transformed, and then shook, his sense of self-worth. In his 30s, it was a way of coping with a profound medical scare. By his early 40s, Thompson had many accomplishments. He was the Editor in Chief of a major magazine; a devoted husband and father; and a passionate runner. But he was haunted by the recent death of his brilliant, complicated father and the crack-up that derailed his father’s life. Had the intensity and ambition he’d inherited made a personal crisis inevitable for him as well? Then a chance offer gave him the opportunity to train for the Chicago Marathon with elite coaches. Giving himself over to the sport more fully than ever before, he discovered that aging didn’t necessarily put you on an unbroken trajectory of decline. For seven years after his father died, Thompson transforms his body to perform at its highest capacity, and the profound discipline and awareness he builds along the way changes every aspect of his life. Throughout the narrative, he weaves in stories of remarkable men and women who have used the sport to transcend some of the hardest moments in life. The Running Ground is a story about fathers, sons, and the most basic and most beautiful of sports.

About the Author :
Nicholas Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic, an American magazine founded in 1857, which earned the top honor for magazines, General Excellence, at the National Magazine Awards in both 2022 and 2023. In his time as CEO, the company has seen record subscriber growth. Before joining The Atlantic, he was the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. He is also a former contributor for CBS News and has previously served as editor. He has long been a competitive runner; in 2021, he set the American record for men 45+ in the 50K race.

Review :
“It would seem disingenuous to say that Nicholas Thompson’s mesmerizing and moving The Running Ground isn’t really about running. But while running—from its practical agonies and ecstasies to its philosophical and deeply personal undercurrents—suffuses this book, something Thompson writes early on holds the key to its deeper revelations: ‘Running is the simplest of sports. But if we look closely, it can teach us about the hardest things in life.’ It’s those hard things that make this an endlessly surprising, revelatory, and heart-rending read.”—Anna Wintour, global editorial director of Vogue “Most of us struggle to escape the specific gravity of our ordinary selves through the discipline of education and learning. Nicholas Thompson’s amazing memoir charts his awakening (and ours vicariously) through running. Here body, mind, and heart become an advanced machine that transcends age and time and generations, uniting him and us in the race of a lifetime. Bravo!”—Ken Burns, filmmaker “The Running Ground is more than a book about running—it’s a deeply human and beautifully written story of honest introspection in which Thompson illustrates how the simplest sport can help us navigate the most complex terrain of our own lives.”—Kilian Jornet, ultramarathoner, world record holder for fastest time running up Mt. Everest “This is not just an engaging memoir about running. It’s a meditation on what it takes to marshal and maintain motivation. Nicholas Thompson’s extraordinary strides illuminate how to unlock your potential.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and host of Re:Thinking “At its heart, The Running Ground is about fathers and sons, ambition and aging, and the quiet grace of moving ever forward. It’s an important look at how one of the simplest human actions—placing one foot in front of the other—can help us outrun our shadows, and catch what we love most.”—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators “In this pensive memoir, Atlantic CEO Thompson (The Hawk and the Dove) ruminates on the lessons he’s learned from fatherhood and distance running. . . . [Thompson] manages to weave everything into an appealing whole. It’s a satisfying self-portrait.”—Publishers Weekly “The best part of the book is the runner’s equivalent of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, when Thompson applies lessons learned from marathons and other long-distance journeys on foot to daily life, including acquiring discipline of his own and gaining mastery of useful life skills. . . . Thompson exudes calm and wisdom. . . . An exemplary memoir of a life spent on the run.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review