The Cover of my first book

And its official publication date and subtitle

RUNHUNDRED

As promised, I am revealing the cover of my first book today. No drum roll – here it is.

RUNHUNDRED

Heart Versus Heat at Western States 100

Publication Date

The book will officially be out on December 1st, 2023

Pre-orders

Pre-orders, including limited bundles, start November 1st, 2023 (You will be notified in a special Das Z Letter)

Format

The book has roughly 250 pages and will be available as a paperback book and ebook, both in English language.

So much for the hard facts.

To say I am excited is a terrible understatement. In fact, it feels much like back in 2015, when I launched Willpower Running and the first 2 t-shirts went up for sale. Like an entirely new world is opening its gates for me, and I’m about to start a new chapter. I haven’t experienced anything like this in a while.

But back to the book cover.

Who made this?

One of the first things I did, when I signed up for Western States, was to look for an elevation profile to get an idea what to expect from the race. The one I found on the official wser.org website, similar to many others on the internet, does not go left to right, as expected, but is geographically aligned, from East to West, thus right to left. That’s roughly how the race route goes. However, looking at this “backwards” elevation profile made my head explode:

(Yuck…)

It took me quite some time, but eventually, I came across a website by an Italian designer and ultrarunner called Alessandro Locatelli, who created his own race map and elevation profile for Western States, alongside some other stunning graphics. It not only portrayed the route in a way I could understand and grasp it, it also looked absolutely gorgeous. I ordered an art print of the race map from his website and dropped him a line, telling him hoch much I like his art.

Since then, we’ve been in touch sporadically, until I decided to turn my written Western States retrospective into a book and asked him if he wanted to create its cover artwork. He gladly said “yes” ♡

Besides the actual book cover, Alessandro also revamped his wonderful race map and elevation profile for RUNHUNDRED, which are now part of the book, as well.

We spent quite some time fine-tuning everything during the past few weeks until we both were pleased with it. And we still are.

What is the meaning of the book cover?

For me, the cover stands for the two hearts beating in my chest. The punk and the levelhead. I explain these two character traits of mine in great detail in RUNHUNDRED, so I will cut it short: The punk is drawn to the unknown, to chaos, excitement, and exploration of the new. The levelhead is in constant search for order, predictability, the familiar, and safety.

The cover also visualizes the intense heat and the sheer distance of the Western States Endurance Run. At the same time, it does, what smart ultrarunners do as well. It cuts an intangible challenge into smaller pieces, to make it appear doable.

And finally, it showcases the immense support and heart-warming community spirit of the race organizers and volunteers by naming each aid station, building an all-embracing circle.

That’s how I understand the book cover. But, what about you?

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Everything Not Running

In the Everything Not Running section, I always cover non-running topics that are worth mentioning, too. Yes, running is the best thing in the world, but by far not the only.

I’m obviously quite excited about my first book. As a consequence, my sleep quality has very much deteriorated. It’s just too many thoughts, to-dos, and ideas that won’t give my head proper rest. I struggle to fall asleep and wake up far too early to resume working on the project. But I’m not too worried about my sleep. I know that this situation is only temporary, and that it will ease out, once the book has been published.

(My cat Harry hasn’t got sleep issues. Not one bit)

How do I know about my sleep quality? You guessed it: I track my sleep. I use an Oura Ring.* I believe this to be the best sleep tracker on the market. It’s a tiny device, literally a finger ring, packed with high-end technology. It measures heart rate, temperature, sleep movement, heart rate variability and breathing.

The sheer data of such trackers is mostly useless to a layperson like me. That’s where the Oura App comes in. It analyses my sleep and daytime data and draws a conclusion for me. Mostly in the form of a sleep score, a readiness index and an activity score. Since this is not an Oura marketing event, I’ll only dive a little deeper into the sleep score. Here’s now it actually works for me:

• My nightly resting heart rate and body temperature give me clear signals when my body struggles with an inflammation or impending infect

• My heart rate variability shows me progression in training. At least if I look at it for the long haul

• A lot of sleep movement indicates that I am lacking deep sleep. Mostly because the room was not dark and cool enough, or because a cat is using me as a trampoline at 4 a.m.

But even more than a measuring instrument, the Oura Ring is a motivator. A motivator, to even care about my sleep and activity. I am not only a tech nerd, but I am also very prone to gamification. So whenever I hit a nice sleep score or readiness index, it gives me a surge of joy and motivates me to take necessary measures to even top it the next day.

Being aware of my sleep, in the first place, is all that matters.

Do you track your sleep, too?

*No paid advertising. I wish.