RUNNING WITH SHERMAN The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero

McDougall had to narrate his own audiobook. How else could we believe that one of our own, a freelance writer working in Philadelphia, backed gleefully into the nineteenth century, there to butcher his own meat and clear the penis of a rescue donkey? Can Sherman, the eponymous donkey in question, be rehabilitated for the World Championship Donkey Race? Inspired by the Gold Rush, said sport means scampering up mountains behind a beast burdened with a prospector's gear. Since burros are famously intractable, the contest challenges brain and brawn alike. Having celebrated the Tarahumara, a Mexican tribe that appeared at the Leadville 100-miler to slaughter contemporary runners, in his earlier book BORN TO RUN, McDougall is looking back in time once again and finding excellence. Why Leadville you ask? Because it's steep. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2020]