The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports

A profound meditation on what running can teach us about our limits and our lives by a record-setting distance runner who is now the CEO of The Atlantic

For Nicholas Thompson, running has always been about something more than putting one foot in front of another. He ran his first mile at age five, using it as a way to connect with his father as his family fell apart. As a young man, it was a sport that transformed, and then shook, his sense of self-worth. In his thirties, it was a way of coping with a profound medical scare.

By his early forties, Thompson had many accomplishments. He was the editor in chief of a major magazine, a devoted husband and father, and a passionate runner. But he was haunted by the recent death of his brilliant, complicated father and the crack-up that derailed his father’s life. Did the intensity and ambition he’d inherited make a personal crisis inevitable for him as well? 

Then a chance offer gave him the opportunity to train for the Chicago Marathon with elite coaches. Committing himself to the sport more fully than ever before, he discovers that aging doesn't necessarily put you on an unbroken trajectory of decline. For seven years after his father's death, Thompson transforms his body to perform at its highest capacity, and the profound discipline and awareness he builds along the way changes every aspect of his life. Throughout the narrative, he weaves in stories of remarkable men and women who have used the sport to transcend some of the hardest moments in life.

The Running Ground is a story about fathers, sons, and the most basic and most beautiful of sports.

About the Author

Nicholas Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic, an American magazine founded in 1857, which earned the top honor for magazines, General Excellence, at the National Magazine Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Before joining The Atlantic, he was the editor in chief of Wired and an editor at The New Yorker. He has long been a competitive runner; in 2021, he set the American record for men 45+ in the 50K race. In 2025, he became the top-ranked runner in the world in his age group for the 50-mile run. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and three sons.

Author Residence: Brooklyn, NY

Author Hometown: Boston, MA