Out of Thin Air, by Michael Crawley

We hear a lot about Kenyan running culture, and in recent years athletes from all over the world have gone to train in Kenya, but what about Ethiopia? Ethiopia has produced athletes like Tirunesh Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele, and Haile Gebreselassie.

Out of Thin Air is the story of Michael Crawley's time living and training with some of the best runners in the world in Ethiopia. The book is divided into 14 chapters, and each chapter describes a facet of training life in Ethiopia, and some of the reasons and beliefs associated with it. There are a lot of little stories about Michael’s experience, like when he was woken up at 3 am for the first time to join the others for a night run. Because he spent 15 months training with the group, he really got a chance to develop friendships and integrate into the running scene. Despite being a 2:20 marathoner he always ended up struggling to complete the training runs, many done at altitude with blazing fast runners.

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing a review copy of the book and for connecting us with the author. Thank you to Michael Crawley speaking with us about the book.