I’ve run a bunch of races like the one described in this book. After the first, my nieces and nephews asked me what I’d seen while jogging through the forest all night long.
“Nothing much,” I said. “Just a whole bunch of trees.”
The kids were disappointed by this answer. And so, after my next race, I made a point of telling better stories. I described the hidden valley wriggling with hoop snakes, the bears I’d seen playing shinny hockey, and the shrine where lost runners bury their secrets.
The farther I ran, the more the stories grew … until they eventually became the novel in your hands.
So, a huge shout-out to my nieces and nephews — who inspired this story, lent their names to some of the characters, helped me with the jokes and dialogue, and even shared early versions of the book with their classmates. You all deserve a finisher’s medal:
Aaron, Alex, Ali, Ben, Benjamin, Brody, Caelan, Caitlin, Caleb, Christopher, Daniel, Darcie, Grace S., Grace W., Jackson, Julia, Julian, Kara, Kelsey, Kiernan, Leonardo, Lucy-Claire, Luke, Monty, Madelaine, Maggie, Mateos, Nate, Oliver, Olivia, Parisinia, Quinn, Ray, Riley, River, Rowan, Rylee, Sacha, Skyler, Sofia, Sydney, Tahnee, Tobias, Zoe.