Almost twenty years ago I read an article in Harper’s magazine about ultra long-distance runners. It stuck with me, probably because — like one of the runners in the story — I, too, will sometimes find myself listening to Fix You by Coldplay on repeat when I’m on an extremely long run. Every so often I’d think of that essay and try to find it again, but was mistakenly convinced for some reason that I’d read it in one of my beloved The Best American Sports Writing anthologies. That error meant my many, many, many Google searches were always fruitless and frustrating.
A few months ago I had the idea to post about it on Threads and someone found the link for me almost immediately. @loveallthis mentioned @waxpancake and he posted it for me four minutes later. How cool is that?
I think, but am not sure, the author of the article is the same Sam Shaw who is the creator / showrunner of Manhattan and The Devil in the White City 1, co-creator of Castle Rock, and writer on Masters of Sex.