In Search of Al Howie

Al Howie’s monomaniacal pursuit of distance made him a legend. His demons made him human.

In the mid-1970s, Al Howie began showing up at the world’s longest footraces, sporting a wild mane of blond hair, a mangy beard, and white singlet that read “Hell’s Gate.” While most of the runners stretched and warmed up, Howie downed beer. When the gun sounded, he went out too hard, too fast—but won anyway. No one was surprised—Howie had run hundreds of miles just to get there.

Perpetually broke, Al Howie was part of a countercultural scene of hippie-vagabonds who stumbled into the golden age of multi-day racing. These dirtbag athletes ran hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles. But no one covered more ground than Howie. In 1991, he ran 4,474 miles across Canada in world-record time—72 days, 10 hours. Two weeks later, he entered a 1,300-mile race in Queens and broke the world record—his own.

Years later, Jared Beasley sets out to find this legendary runner. In Search of Al Howie takes readers on a surprising journey, uncovering bizarre aliases, fake IDs, and a multi-national kidnapping. Despite his unbelievable drive and athleticism, Al Howie is a man trying to outrun his own failure.