In the Long Run: A Father, a Son, and Unintentional Lessons in Happiness

It s 2008. Jim Axelrod once among the most watched correspondents on network news and the first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003 is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue, Jim discovers his late father s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: Can I beat him? So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a care