[The Guardian] Spirit Journey: one man's role in a 6,000-mile run through North America

Spirit Journey: one man's role in a 6,000-mile run through North America

When Noé Álvarez joined an extraordinary ultramarathon he tested himself physically and mentally, while also connecting with his heritage

While jogging on the spot, Mexican-American runner Noé Álvarez showed his passport to the border agent in Nogales, Arizona. Álvarez was participating in the Peace and Dignity Journeys (PDJ), an ultramarathon for runners of indigenous background like himself. His group had run 3,200 miles from the Arctic to the US border with Mexico. They still had miles to go before their destination of the Panama Canal, but for Álvarez, the crossing into Mexico had extra meaning – it was the homeland of his parents before they immigrated to the US. The border agent, a fellow Latino, smirkingly asked if he was running in the wrong direction.

It’s an emotional moment in Álvarez’s new memoir, Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land. The book chronicles not only that epic run in 2004 but also the background of the author and his immigrant parents.

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