Going Down Slow, The Times of an Old Man Who Runs. The word "runs" appears in the subtitle of this memoir, and the act of running spans the breadth of it. So it is perhaps fair if some call this a running book. Running, however, is not the main topic. Adventure is. Author Dallas Smith is drawn to the adventure his hobby brings. Running is indeed a constant presence in the stories, but mostly as a current that sweeps him along, the reason he encounters the places he describes, the people he meets, and the adventure he finds. Running connects him to everything and everyone. Events and episodes...

The Vol State 500k road race begins in Missouri, slants nonstop across Tennessee and ends on a mountain ledge in Georgia, touching five states altogether. Dallas Smith ran it twice, two years apart. He ran unsupported, finding his own food, water and shelter. In the second running, he was trying to become the oldest such runner to ever finish the race. What had been a routine run the first time went terribly wrong the second time. The race drove him to the brink of physical, emotional and mental collapse. Unknown at the time, a medicine prescribed by his doctor was eating his running muscles....