A journey into Japan's fabled running culture from the award-winning author of Running with the Kenyans.

Welcome to Japan, the most running-obsessed nation on earth, a place where a 135-mile relay race is the country's biggest annual sporting event. Thousands of professional runners compete for corporate teams in some of the most competitive races in the world. Marathon monks run a thousand marathons in a thousand days to reach spiritual enlightenment.

Adharanand Finn spent six months immersed in this unique running culture to discover what it might teach us about the sport and about Japan. As an amateur runner about to turn 40, he also hoped to find out whether the Japanese approach to training might help him run faster. What he learned - about competition, teamwork, form, chasing personal bests and himself - will fascinate anyone keen to explore why we run and how we might do it better.