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Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America
Presents the author's account of his solo run across the United States, detailing his experiences with harsh terrain, bad weather, physical exhaustion, and boredom and describing his encounters with many different people throughout America
- GenresSportsNonfiction
237 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 30, 2012
Shapiro frequently indulges in overly-long sentences and rambling musings, yet I excuse that as a side effect of spending all those months doing nothing all day but running from west to east. I loved reading about a transcontinental trip that occurred before gps, before sponsorships, before all of these superstar ultra runners. I read this memoir while traveling solo myself, and they way he talked about the kindness of strangers as well as the parochialism of them really struck a chord with me. There are some beautiful passages about our nation, about running, about struggling through injury. But what I appreciated most of all was the way, down to his very last stride into Central Park, Shapiro worked to shuck his ego, his attachments to the results, to how people perceived him, his performance, his project.
If you can get a copy of this book and are looking for something a bit retro to read, I recommend this memoir.
If you can get a copy of this book and are looking for something a bit retro to read, I recommend this memoir.
July 21, 2020
Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America is a legendary must-read book among ultrarunners. It was originally published in 1982 but has been out of print and unavailable for decades. Happily, it has been reprinted. My personal copy, now thoroughly annotated, is the generous gift of an ultrarunning friend who is himself a legend. It has a renewed copyright of 2019 and arrived in a crisp, clean, and new hardcover edition. (I've heard of people scrounging libraries for it and passing on dog-eared copies from generation to generation.)
The book's topic is the author's 1980 80-day run across the United States from San Francisco to New York City, where he lived. He ran it mostly solo, though he had handlers for a few days in the Western desert and again near the end.
At the time, few people had been able to claim verifiable transcontinental runs (transcons) of North America — or any other continent. Gear and technology that we have available today include not only shoes and wicking clothing and lightweight travel gear but also cell phones and the Internet with Google Maps. This all provides a vastly greater safety net to someone taking on such a monumental task — one that remains daunting and achievable by few people for lots of reasons, many of which you can no doubt think of without my help, even if you are not a distance runner yourself. To do it without any of that as Shapiro did seems impossible today.
The reason for the book's legendary status quickly becomes apparent upon reading it. It's beautifully written, original in what it covers. It's not all "and then I saw another endless strip of road" and "I was tired at the end of the day." Shapiro is utterly honest, modest, and self-revealing in how he regarded his own adventure. As tedious as such an adventure might seem to someone, Shapiro's writing about it is never boring. The "Meditations" part of the title is certainly appropriate, since thinking and reflection is the primary result of the author's effort, as it has been the most important output of my own hours on the road.
This is a subject I know a little bit about myself. I know a few people personally who have accomplished transcontinental runs because I am a former ultrarunner myself. I say "former" because my racing and running days are over, but I still hit the roads as much as I can. In spirit, I never really quit the sport, and if certain things were just a little different, I'd still be doing it. Seriously.
The fact that I'm not doing it underscores an important lesson learned from the book (if the reader doesn't already know it), namely that not everybody can run all the way across America simply by being determined enough. Duh. I guess that should be obvious.
Accomplishing that goal is far more than a matter of being, young, strong, tough, ambitious, and adventurous. It requires a mindset that few people can acquire, also great personal economic, emotional, and physical cost. Although I don't know of anyone who has died trying, the threat of death is certainly a factor. And there is the time. Who can simply drop out of other aspects of his life — job, family, and social responsibilities — to do nothing whatever but run 40 to 50 miles a day for two and a half months?
Well ... not me, but it's not because I lack the desire and interest. I have dreamed about walking from Barrow Alaska to the southern tip of South America, taking a roughly Pacific Coast route, for most of the last forty years or so, since long before I even took up running for fitness or had ever heard that there are actually people who do these things. I have had other obligations (willingly accepted) that far outweigh any such personal ambitions. They add up to making it an impossibility for me to do more than think about it. So I have been satisfied with doing an occasional fixed-time 24-hour or multiday race and also with attempting a few 100-mile trail races. (I've participated in nine 72-hour races and did reasonably well in all but the last, when I got sick on the first day.)
Running across America is also beyond my range of ability no matter how I cut it. In short, I don't have "the right stuff" and won't any time during my life in this system of things. But that's OK. The mere fact that I've had a small taste of what ultrarunners experience added immeasurably to my enjoyment of Shapiro's book.
The book's topic is the author's 1980 80-day run across the United States from San Francisco to New York City, where he lived. He ran it mostly solo, though he had handlers for a few days in the Western desert and again near the end.
At the time, few people had been able to claim verifiable transcontinental runs (transcons) of North America — or any other continent. Gear and technology that we have available today include not only shoes and wicking clothing and lightweight travel gear but also cell phones and the Internet with Google Maps. This all provides a vastly greater safety net to someone taking on such a monumental task — one that remains daunting and achievable by few people for lots of reasons, many of which you can no doubt think of without my help, even if you are not a distance runner yourself. To do it without any of that as Shapiro did seems impossible today.
The reason for the book's legendary status quickly becomes apparent upon reading it. It's beautifully written, original in what it covers. It's not all "and then I saw another endless strip of road" and "I was tired at the end of the day." Shapiro is utterly honest, modest, and self-revealing in how he regarded his own adventure. As tedious as such an adventure might seem to someone, Shapiro's writing about it is never boring. The "Meditations" part of the title is certainly appropriate, since thinking and reflection is the primary result of the author's effort, as it has been the most important output of my own hours on the road.
This is a subject I know a little bit about myself. I know a few people personally who have accomplished transcontinental runs because I am a former ultrarunner myself. I say "former" because my racing and running days are over, but I still hit the roads as much as I can. In spirit, I never really quit the sport, and if certain things were just a little different, I'd still be doing it. Seriously.
The fact that I'm not doing it underscores an important lesson learned from the book (if the reader doesn't already know it), namely that not everybody can run all the way across America simply by being determined enough. Duh. I guess that should be obvious.
Accomplishing that goal is far more than a matter of being, young, strong, tough, ambitious, and adventurous. It requires a mindset that few people can acquire, also great personal economic, emotional, and physical cost. Although I don't know of anyone who has died trying, the threat of death is certainly a factor. And there is the time. Who can simply drop out of other aspects of his life — job, family, and social responsibilities — to do nothing whatever but run 40 to 50 miles a day for two and a half months?
Well ... not me, but it's not because I lack the desire and interest. I have dreamed about walking from Barrow Alaska to the southern tip of South America, taking a roughly Pacific Coast route, for most of the last forty years or so, since long before I even took up running for fitness or had ever heard that there are actually people who do these things. I have had other obligations (willingly accepted) that far outweigh any such personal ambitions. They add up to making it an impossibility for me to do more than think about it. So I have been satisfied with doing an occasional fixed-time 24-hour or multiday race and also with attempting a few 100-mile trail races. (I've participated in nine 72-hour races and did reasonably well in all but the last, when I got sick on the first day.)
Running across America is also beyond my range of ability no matter how I cut it. In short, I don't have "the right stuff" and won't any time during my life in this system of things. But that's OK. The mere fact that I've had a small taste of what ultrarunners experience added immeasurably to my enjoyment of Shapiro's book.
January 19, 2009
Difficult to find these days (the Boulder Public Library in Colorado has a mildewed hardback that I curled up with last summer), Shapiro's book is a startling, often lyrical recollection of his transcontinental journey. Look, I normally roll my eyes at anything that mentions "Zen" and "running" in the same book, but Shapiro gets away with it beautifully because of his sense of humor and the quiet realism of his prose. Highly recommended, if you can dig it up.
July 11, 2015
Easily one of the best books about running I have ever read. Shapiro understands that doubt, petulance, stubbornness, and ego are as important to acknowledge in the process of describing the experience of ultra distance running as are jubilation, strength, and logistics. He is also one of the most talented writers who've chronicled the sport. He is frequently and touchingly poetic. It was a shame when I had to finish reading this book and a great shame that it is no longer in print.
March 18, 2020
It's been more than 20 years since I last read Shapiro's Meditations from the Breakdown Lane, but the sense of patient adventure and inner-dialogue for the solo runner still resonate with me. My father had Shapiro's book in his den. It eventually drifted across the hall into my older brother's room. It was likely that tome that spurred my brother to agree to spend a week during his high school spring break running across the width of Florida with my father. The father-son four-day ultramarathon trek was nothing short of heroic in my middle school mind and I spent many years after that dreaming how I, too, could enjoy similar fame. I recall Shapiro's descriptions of the random tools he'd find on the side of the road and wondered how anyone could leave such a useful item just laying on the side of the road. I began thoughts that if I were ever in a similar situation, that I would find a way to let the item continue to be of use. A decade later, I was dipping my right foot into the Atlantic Ocean about to start a 4,800-mile trail run across America. On my own transcon, I came across numerous tools, headlamps, and even money, and each time I carried the item until I could find a new home for it. I felt like a stockboy in the aisles of a very large department store, putting things back where they belonged. Beyond the treasure hunting though, Shapiro is masterful in describing his thoughts as he ran the interstate. Where would my mind go in such isolation? His story caused enough curiosity in me that I not only craved to find the answer, but I made the life-changing decision to seek it. What resulted was nothing short of a permanent transformation into my new self, and without his book, I would not be the unique person I have become today. How wonderful that the sharing of words and experiences from others can take us to such higher places.
June 21, 2017
Articulates those far away thoughts distance runners get- the purpose, the value, the stubbornness, the fatigue, the mindfulness.
June 28, 2020
Excellent book if you like running!
July 15, 2024
This was pretty hard for me to get through in 2024, maybe just not my style. The second half went a lot faster than the first though, so I'll probably be due a re-read in a few years.
November 8, 2024
"There is no surprise that [things change] , but sometimes, in a rush, deeper more fundamental themes change..." (204).
December 19, 2025
"Why after all should it be boring? Who is it who speaks of boring? Who clings to such a rag when there is all that sky overhead?"
September 17, 2014
I think his prose matches the endurance of the effort documented. The account was descriptive, colorful, honest, and insightful. Although I have only ran a small fraction of the miles Shapiro has recorded in his bones, the amount I have ran along with his descriptive prose garnered respect for the price to be paid of undertaking such a journey. I highly recommend this book to anyone engaged in endurance activities.
March 11, 2009
Not a bad book, not fantastic either. I think to truly understand his journey, both physically and mentally you need to be a distance runner. Though my own running pales in comparison to a transcontinental run, I have personally experienced just a bit of the philosophical journey one undergoes and was interested by how he articulated such ethereal feelings.
May 12, 2012
Inspirational story of a run across the country. Read it several years ago but still pull inspiration from it. Hoping to do the same sometime this decade, will use this as a resource. The writing falls off a bit the further James goes, likely as a result of him tiring. Still, book is worth picking up if you can find a copy.
July 13, 2007
Have you ever thought about running across America??? It's not the most engaging read but if you are a long distance runner there are some truths here that you will recognize.
Warning: This book is out of print and hard to find.
Warning: This book is out of print and hard to find.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews