|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Track & field sports, athletics
On April 23, 1929, the second annual Transcontinental Foot Race
across America, known as the Bunion Derby, was in its twenty-fifth
day. Eddie "the Sheik" Gardner, an African American runner from
Seattle, was leading the race across the Free Bridge over the
Mississippi River. Along with the signature outfit that earned him
his nickname-a white towel tied around his head, white shorts, and
a white shirt-Gardner wore an American flag, a reminder to all who
saw him run through the Jim Crow South that he was an American and
the leader of the greatest footrace in the world. Kastner traces
Gardner's remarkable journey from his birth in 1897 in Birmingham,
Alabama, to his success in Seattle, Washington, as one of the top
long-distance runners in the region, and finally to his
participation in two transcontinental footraces where he risked his
life, facing a barrage of harassment for having the audacity to
compete with white runners. Kastner shows how Gardner's
participation became a way to protest the endemic racism he faced,
heralding the future of nonviolent efforts that would be
instrumental to the civil rights movement. Shining a bright light
on his extraordinary athletic accomplishments and his heroism on
the dusty roads of America in the 1920s, Kastner gives Gardner and
other black bunioneers the attention they so richly deserve.
At the age of nine, Jamie's family feared he would never walk
again. Twenty years later, he set off to run 5,000 miles coast to
coast across Canada. When Jamie decides to repay the hospitals that
saved his life as a child, he embarks on the biggest challenge of
his life: running the equivalent of 200 marathons back-to-back,
solo and unsupported, in -40 degree weather, surviving all kinds of
injuries and traumas on the road and wearing through 13 pairs of
trainers. And he does it all dressed as the superhero, the Flash.
Though his journey was both mentally and physically exhausting, it
was the astounding acts of kindness and hospitality he encountered
along the way that kept him going. Whether they gave him a bed for
the night, food for the journey, a donation to his charity or
companionship and encouragement during the long days of running,
Jamie soon came to realise that every person who helped him towards
his goal was a superhero too.
|
|