“Because the runner is the messenger and his suffering must be witnessed,”. This is Rickey Gates describing his conflicting motivations for wanting to run across the USA, back in 2017. I listened to Gates’ new audiobook on my long run this morning. Cross Country: A 3,700 Mile Run Across America – doesn’t read like your typical ultra-running adventure book. Running is not the main topic of the book, instead running is present as a backdrop to some of the book’s big themes. Gates is poetic and philosophical in his writing about the book’s main topic – discovering the identity of the USA for himself. Gates’ cross-country run started shortly after the 2016 election of Donald Trump, an event that left him feeling depressed and confused about how well he knew his own country. Gates shares about his relationship problems with his girlfriend during this time – they decided to break up right before the run. Gates also describes his feelings of inadequacy with his career as a professional runner. This brings us back full circle to Gates’ motivations for wanting to run across the country. Transformation is a theme that resurfaces a number of times during the book. Gates is unhappy about his current state of affairs and looks to this journey to help put his life back on track.
I came across this book through the irunfar website. Although I was familiar with Rickey Gates, I had to do some research to learn more about him. Gates grew up in Aspen Colorado and won the first mountain race that he ever entered, the Imogene Pass in 2005. Gates joined the United States mountain running team shortly after and racked up a number of victories in the US and in Europe. He ran his first ultra event in 2011, the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache, Alberta. Gates won the 125km event, completing it in 12h15m and beating the course record by 32 minutes. He is sponsored by Salomon and is well known by the upper echelon of the ultra-running community. Gates is shown in pictures in the irunfar article hanging out with Scott Jurek and pacing Kilian Jornet in the 2014 Hardrock 100.
Although Gates is an elite athlete he chose to sleep most nights in a tent during his run across America. He sometimes pitched his tent in questionable locations like parks or the side of the road. He subsisted on a diet of gas station food and beer. He ran the last leg of his journey pushing a running stroller full of his gear. It’s easy to admire Gates’ lack of pretension.
I really enjoyed the audiobook but I wished it was longer than 1h27m. I was hesitant to buy Cross Country when I first saw its length but I’ve been very interested in these types of stories lately and I figured that the funds would help support an ultra-runner. Despite the short length, the audiobook is packed with great stories and beautiful descriptive writing. I’m considering buying the Kindle or the hardcover book which are 256 pages long and full of photographs and drawings. Cross Country is a great story of transformation which left me feeling inspired and grateful for running.