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26.2 Miles to Happiness is Paul Tonkinson’s memoire and an account of his sub-3 hour marathon. Paul lost his mother when he was very young, and he had a rocky relationship with his step-mom between the ages of 6 and 13. He explains some of the scars that this relationship left him with well into adulthood, and how running helped him overcome them. As a young boy Paul would wake up before anyone else in the household to sneak off for a run in an old pair of boots. As an adult, Paul spent some time enjoying food and alcohol a little too much, before getting back into running for health reasons. Paul’s work as a comedian means that he has some very good friends that are not runners, and this makes for some funny stories as he is trying to get ready to run his sub-3-hour marathon. There is one instance where he is in a restaurant with a friend and tries to order a healthy option with no alcohol; his friend waits for the waitress to leave and then offers to pay for his meal because he thinks that Paul is short on cash… why else would you leave out the alcohol?

Paul Tonkinson is a British comedian, radio presenter and television personality, best known for his presenting work on The Big Breakfast and The Sunday Show. He was winner of the 1992 Time Out New Act of the Year Award, and was Time Out Stand Up Comic of the Year in 1997. Paul has returned to running as an adult and is now in the sub-3-hour marathon club with a personal best of 2:59:21 at the London marathon. Along the way he has also started a podcast called Running Commentary where he and the cohost interview people while running. The author hopes that with his book he can convince at least one person to run a marathon.

26.2 Miles to Happiness can be found at the usual book outlets (Amazon, etc.), or you can get a copy directly from the publisher: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/262-miles-to-happiness-9781472966261/

If you would like to follow Paul then you can find him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/paultonkinson_/

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing a review copy of the book, and to the author Paul Tonkinson for taking the time to speak with us. 

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