As a follow-up to his hugely popular 2016 autobiography Trailblazer, Ryan Sandes’ new book explores the gripping and often life-threatening adventures this extraordinary ultra-trail runner has experienced around the globe since then. Not only have these projects tested the very edge of human endurance, but on several occasions, Ryan literally had to run for his life.Along with a 1 500-kilometre Himalayan adventure, read about his attempt at completing the first 700-kilomet...

What does it take to run a six-day race through the world’s harshest deserts? Or 100 miles in a single day at altitudes that would leave you breathless just walking? More than that, though: what is it like to win these races? South Africa’s ultra-trail-running superstar Ryan Sandes has done just that. Since bursting onto the international trail-running scene by winning the first multistage race he ever entered – the brutal Gobi March – Ryan has gone on to win various other multistage and s...

Want to know what really goes on on an aeroplane? Let's go behind the scenes and fly high with these tall tales and gossip from the galley!Everyone wants to be a flight attendant, or at least they want to know about the cushy lifestyle they lead – flying to exotic destinations, swanning about in five-star hotels, daytime lazing around the pool and night-time tabletop dancing with Bollywood stars. At last the lid is lifted. Come on board a real airline with a real f...

When celebrated radio personality and columnist Kerre Woodham found herself forty, overweight and depressed she faced two choices - do nothing and probably not make it to fifty or do something and get her life back. Fortunately for all of us, and especially those women who like to eat and dress well, she decided to fight back. Leaving kilos of herself and two bra sizes behind 'somewhere in the Waitakeres' she embarked on a fitness and training regime, with a goal to complete the Auckland m...

At his brother's wedding in 2002, 30-year-old Josh Kench sat with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and announced that he was going to do the Coast to Coast. His pronouncement was met with derision, but he's proved his doubters wrong.Josh won the 2010 Lake Taupo Extreme Enduro, covering a mind-numbing eight laps of the 160-kilometre course in 55 hours. And that's only the start of it. In June 2011, this 39-year-old plumber lined up at the start of the Race Across Ame...

Most people who survived an almost unsurviveable plane crash would be tempted to sit back, take a good hard look at life and take things a little bit easier. Mike Allsop is not most people. Almost losing his life in a Twin Otter crash off the coast of Hawai'i awakened Mike's zest for life and his thirst for adventure.Mountaineering became Mike's passion and climbing led to him almost getting shot in Russia, narrowly missing a fatal avalanche in Peru, returning a replica of a stolen...

As he teetered on a narrow rock ledge a yak's bellow short of the stratosphere, with a rubber mask strapped to his face, a pair of mittens the size of a sealion's flippers, and a drop of two kilometres below him, it's fair to say Mark Horrell wasn't entirely happy with the situation he found himself in.He was an ordinary hiker who had only read books about mountaineering, and little did he know when he signed up for an organised trek in Nepal with a group of elderly ladies that ten...

A book for chicks of all ages who sometimes get it wrong but keep on trying anyway . . .When celebrity broadcaster and columnist Kerre Woodham became the Short Fat Chick who runs marathons, she changed lives. Hugely successful, her first book is now followed by a funny, inspiring and devastatingly honest continuation of her personal story. this time Kerre shares more of her physical and emotional journey through a life lived out loud - the highs and lows of a woman who has privately...

While flicking through some photographs of a holiday in the Caribbean in 2009 Craig Jordan was appalled by what he saw, an overweight out of shape middle aged man on a very slippery slope. Craig decided there and then on a campaign to get Fit for Fifty and this became his mantra but the question was which sport? Over the next few months he was a regular visitor in the gym and went out and bought a mountain bike but nothing seemed to inspire and getting the journey to get fit seemed destine...

From the co-author of the best-selling Running Made Easy, with a foreword by running legend Kathrine Switzer.Lisa Jackson is a surprising cheerleader for the joys of running. Formerly a committed fitness-phobe, she became a marathon runner at 31, and ran her first 56-mile ultramarathon aged 41. And unlike many runners, Lisa's not afraid to finish last – in fact, she's done so in 20 of the 90-plus marathons she's completed so far.But this isn't just Lisa's story, it's also tha...

Praise for—How to Live a Life of Adventure “After reading the first 20 chapters, I was ready to tackle a grizzly bear, wrestle a sea lion and climb Mount Everest. Not only does Wooldridge inspire you to live a maximum life, he shows you how to do it. I loved the adventures between every instructional chapter. I appreciated how thorough he was with references, key points and guides.” Roger Hamilton, teacher “I am a tomboy. I travel and play sports. I’m also bold and sassy. This book address...

It was the greatest year of my life.I ran with bulls, danced at festivals, strode across the Great Wall of China and crawled beneath the Great Pyramids. I made my way to the remotest islands, the hottest deserts and the coldest of climates. I was robbed, suffered injuries, got sick and depressed. I covered around 320,000 kilometres by plane, train, boat, bus and car and ran just over 2300 race kilometres. It proved to me that you can do whatever you want to – just find the starting...