This is one comparatively unfit 39 year old Londoner's humorous account of his attempt to run the New York marathon from scratch. Inspired by the charity running of friends, Russell Taylor set himself the challenge of doing what Pheidippides first had done. But to spare himself the post-event trauma of trying to extract money from the reluctant grasp of his sponsors, he decided to write a book about his experiences and donate the royalties to charity instead.