Jill Homer, Tim Hewitt

8,000 Miles Across Alaska: A Runner's Journeys on the Iditarod Trail (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In North America's Last Frontier, there are still untrammeled wildernesses where a man can stand alone in a region the size of entire states, where deep cold quiets every whisper of life and vast emptiness reigns. Alaska remains a mysterious place that, thanks to reality television, has captured the imagination of millions. Yet a minuscule fraction have acquired an understanding of the land afforded by exploring in their most vulnerable state on foot, towing all of their supplies, wholly independent. This is the perspective of Tim Hewitt, an employment lawyer from Pennsylvania with a unique hobby racing across Alaska on the Iditarod Trail.

What compels a man to run, walk, and trudge a thousand miles across Alaska? "Because it's there" isn't an adequate explanation. "As a challenge" or "for the adventure of it" are closer, but still too vague. The thousand-mile dog sled race on the Iditarod Trail is often called "The Last Great Race" but there's another, more obscure race, where participants don't even have the help of dogs. The Iditarod Trail Invitational challenges cyclists, skiers, and runners to complete the distance under their own power and without much outside support. Tim Hewitt is the only person to have completed it more than three times. His actual number? An astonishing eight. Six of those, he won or tied.

But no one who sees Tim Hewitt on the street near his law firm in Pittsburgh would ever suspect that battling hurricane-force blizzards is something he does in his spare time. Fifty-nine years old with a slim build, a bright smile, and cropped gray hair, he isn't the stereotype of a grizzled Arctic explorer. He's a talented amateur runner, a father to four daughters, a husband to an equally adventurous wife, and achiever of a truly distinctive accomplishment. Far more people have reached the summit of Mount Everest than Nome under their own power, and it's incredibly unlikely that another person will ever try for eight.

"8,000 Miles Across Alaska: A Runner's Journeys on the Iditarod Trail" chronicles Tim Hewitt's adventures crossing the stark wilderness of Alaska in the depth of winter the harrowing weather conditions, breathtaking scenery, kindness of strangers, humorous misadventures, humbling setbacks and heroic victories. From fierce competition with his fellow racers, to traveling backward on the trail to ensure the safety of his wife, to battling for his own survival, Tim Hewitt has amassed a lifetime of experiences amid the harsh miles of the Iditarod Trail. This is his story.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Jill Homer
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. August 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781311822079
• Artikelnr.: 47415014

Autorenporträt

Jill Homer grew up in Sandy, Utah, and graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in journalism in 2000. She began her career working for weekly and daily newspapers in Utah and Idaho. In 2005, she moved to Homer, Alaska, to pursue adventure in the Last Frontier. She never viewed herself as an athlete, but she was searching for a unique kind of outlet that provided both physical and psychological challenges. Endurance cycling fit that description. Two years of (mainly mis)adventures landed her in one of the most difficult endurance races in North America, a 350-mile winter traverse of Alaska wilderness called the Iditarod Trail Invitational. The unforgettable experience was the genesis of her first book, Ghost Trails: Journeys Through a Lifetime. Her second book, Be Brave, Be Strong: A Journey Across the Great Divide is a continuation of what she views as her ongoing challenge: To drink life by the gallon, every day. She currently works as a freelance writer and editor in Los Altos, California.