Moving Mountains: Running from the Atlantic to the Med

by Andrew Townsend

I arrived in my mid-fifties, clinically obese, riddled with arthritis and often having to walk with a stick.I had an epiphany, threw away my stick and resolved to change my life for ever. I started walking every day. The walking turned to running and after two years I had lost a third of my body weight and was fitter than I had been since my twenties. I started running all over Europe and pushed myself harder and harder. In 2015 I ran eight self-supported marathons in eight countries in eight days driving myself between each one - a world’s first. As I approached my sixtieth birthday, I wanted to mark it in a really spectacular way. I decided to emulate the world’s greatest trail runner, Kilian Jornet, and run across Spain from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The journey would take me 525 miles across the Pyrenees climbing a total of more than 125,000 feet – the equivalent of four ‘Everests’.This is my story.

135 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 2021

About the author

Andrew Townsend is a retired college professor and a certified instructor in the arts of taijiquan, qigong, and Taoist meditation. He has over 28years of experience in these arts. He is a disciple of Grandmaster Jesse Tsao and is a 13th generation lineage holder in the Chen family style of taijiquan. Andrew has authored four books on the subject of taijiquan and is presently working on his fifth book on this topic. He has also produced a book on Taoism and the practice of mindfulness, which can be viewed as well on his author's page.