Nick Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic. But he moonlights as a damn good runner.

At 44, he ran a marathon in 2 hours and 29 minutes, making him one of the fastest marathoners his age on the planet. He later set an American age group record in the 50K. He has run in blazing heat with ice tucked into his hat and in frigid cold with Vaseline dabbed on his nose. He's run up sunny mountain trails and down dark city streets. He has run, and run, and run some more.

His relationship with the sport is the subject of his new memoir, The Running Ground. It's a book about the fragile boundary between love and obsession, between progress and suffering. And it's about the way we all run in loops: away from the past and then back toward it.

(4:35) Nick reads from The Running Ground

(8:00) On his father: "Not a simple guy"

(16:34) How the sport finds you

(30:00) A personal best, then a cancer diagnosis

(40:56) The four states of running bliss (and how to reach them)

(46:29) How Nick got faster in his forties

(49:14) The big takeaway

(50:33) Want to start running? Do this.

(53:14) Is running actually good for you?