How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America
August 5, 2019
In this tenderhearted memoir, McDougall (Born to Run) tells of his adoption and rehabilitation of Sherman, an ailing rescue donkey. Neglected by an animal hoarder near McDougall’s farm in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Sherman is nursed back to health by Tanya, a local veterinary technician: “You need to give this animal a purpose. You need to find him a job,” Tanya tells McDougall. So McDougall, an accomplished runner, sets his sights on the annual World Championship Leadville Burro Race in Colorado, an eight-decade-long tradition that includes an uphill run half the height of Mt. Everest. McDougall is a charming, enthusiastic storyteller as he describes how, with less than a year to train, he enlists Tanya; his wife, Mika; and Zeke, a troubled Penn State student who draws strength and purpose from training Sherman. The team, which also includes donkeys Flower and Matilda, wends its way through wooded mazes, creeks, and other obstacles in preparation for the high-altitude race. As the event draws closer, several setbacks challenge the team, including Tanya’s horse-training accident, Zeke’s broken foot, and McDougall’s shattered finger. Despite these setbacks, they arrive in Leadville in 2016 ready to race, and complete the 15-mile “short course,” with Sherman finishing 29th out of 52. Runners and animal lovers alike can find inspiration in this story of the ways in which humans and animals connect.
August 15, 2019
An abused animal gets a new life. Raised in captivity by a man who could not care for the animals he hoarded, one donkey was left in shocking condition. When McDougall (Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance, 2015, etc.) first saw the animal, he could hardly believe his eyes: Penned in a cramped stall, mired knee-deep in manure, it had hooves so neglected and overgrown that it could hardly walk. "His muscles were withered," writes the author, "his body was sagging and soft, his trust was severely damaged if not altogether lost." McDougall agreed to take the donkey--renamed Sherman--to his home in rural Pennsylvania, but he had little hope that the animal would live. Equines need to walk in order for their intestines to digest food; if they are hobbled, McDougall learned, "waste matter blocks their guts until the animal is torn apart from the inside." Fortunately for Sherman, the author was surrounded by caring neighbors who swooped in to help. One amateur horseman sawed off Sherman's excess hooves; his wife, who raised donkeys, horses, a goat, and a pig, sheered away matted fur and gave the animal a thorough shampoo. She also advised that the donkey needed to have a job--a sense of purpose. For McDougall, that had to involve movement, which he believed was "big medicine; it's the signal to every cell in our bodies that no matter what kind of damage we've suffered, we're ready to rebuild and move away from death and back toward life." Like humans, the author discovered, animals "are hungry for a challenge." Against great odds, he decided to train Sherman to enter a world championship burro race. Sherman's transformation from dying donkey to confident runner involved a circle of family, friends, neighbors, and a few feisty donkeys, each of whom McDougall portrays in affectionate, vivid detail. For several of them, suffering from their own emotional pain and trauma, Sherman proved a source of solace and support. A charming tale of a resilient donkey and a community's love.
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September 15, 2019
Who could imagine finding joy in running with a donkey? McDougall (Born to Run, 2009) could, and here he tells the story of the donkey named Sherman who captured his heart. When Sherman was rescued from a hoarder, he was near death, covered in parasites and barely able to walk due to unkempt hooves that looked like thick, oversize clown shoes. McDougall, along with his family and a host of friends and neighbors in his Pennsylvania Amish community, join forces to nurture the donkey and give him a purpose for living. Soon McDougall develops a bold plan: to train Sherman to compete in Colorado's World Championship Pack Burro Race, in which a runner leads a burro outfitted with a regulation pack saddle, complete with a pick, shovel, and gold pan. McDougall's account of how Sherman defied the odds to compete in the race is both inspiring and humorous, a testament to the depth of the animal-human connection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
October 1, 2019
Former AP foreign correspondent McDougall follows up his Born To Run, a 1.3 million-copy best seller about the swift-footed Tarahumara Indians, with the story of another runner: a rescue donkey named Sherman who arrived at McDougall's Lancaster, PA, farm in worse shape than expected. The author decided to help Sherman mentally as well as physically by training him for the World Championship of burro racing. And that took a village. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.