A Mile at a Time A Father and Son's Inspiring Alzheimer's Journey of Love, Adventure, and Hope

by Macy, Mark Mace; Macy, Travis; Regan, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9781623545550
• ISBN10: 1623545552
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-03-14
• Publisher: Imagine

Summary

An inspiring memoir about a father and son entering World's Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji despite one of them battling Alzheimer’s.

“Travis and Mace have touched a generation of families around the world with their courage, resilience and kindness.”
--Bear Grylls, star of Man vs. Wild and host of World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji

“Watching Mark and Travis Macy compete together for Eco-Challenge Fiji was a true inspiration. Travis’s selfless act of taking his father on what may be his last race is a story that anyone can relate to and what we need more of these days.” 
--Mark Burnett, chairman of MGM Worldwide Television Group; creator and producer of Survivor, The Apprentice, and World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji

In October 2018, Mark “Mace” Macy, sixty-four years old, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Mace had spent thirty years competing in Colorado and around the world in ultra-endurance competitions and is one of the few people who have finished all eight Eco-Challenge events. Once diagnosed, Mace feared losing endurance, strength, and independence. 

Mace's son Travis, also a professional endurance athlete, also struggled to see his father battling the disease. In 2019 they decided to participate in World's Toughest Race—a seven-day, grueling 400-mile marathon of trekking, climbing, biking, and paddling through the jungle—for one final race together.

Weaving excerpts from Mace's passionate personal journals alongside a first-person narrative by Travis, A Mile at a Time tells the story of this incredible journey and what both father and son learned along the way.

A powerful story about living—and thriving—with a disease that impacts nearly six million Americans. This timely, and deeply moving father-son adventure sheds light on the hard truths of this disease while giving readers hope of all that still can be achieved.

Author Biography

Finisher of over 130 ultra-endurance events in 17 countries, Travis Macy is a speaker, author, coach, and record-setting professional endurance athlete. Travis leads authentically to empower others to make the most of their lives. He is the author of The Ultra Mindset: An Endurance Champion's 8 Core Principles for Success in Business, Sports, and Life. He also wrote the text for two photo books about adventure racing: Adventure Racing World Championship Scotland and Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge 2009. A sponsored professional athlete for twenty years, Travis Macy has represented a variety of industry leaders, including Merrell, Salomon, Spyder, Nike, Eastern Mountain Sports, Osprey, Hoka One, Ultimate Direction, Zanfel, and Nemo Equipment.

Travis’s father, Mark "Mace" Macy, was a successful trial lawyer for decades and retired as a partner from his Denver law firm in late 2016. He is also a well-known and long-lived figure in the endurance sports world. “Mace'” and his contemporaries pioneered ultra-running (defined as races of 50 kilometers to more than 100 miles) in the 1980s. In the 90s he did the same for adventure racing: grueling team events requiring everything from rope climbing to trail running, mountain biking, white-water rafting and even camel riding. One of a few athletes to participate in eight Eco-Challenge adventure races from 1995 to 2002, he is the only person to compete in this extreme adventure race (in 2019) after having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. As best as can be ascertained, he is one of the few athletes to officially compete in any sanctioned ultra-distance event after having received such a diagnosis. 
 
Cowriter Patrick Regan is the author of biography, history, humor, lifestyle and children’s books, and he has collaborated with a long list of artists, athletes, humorists, and photographers. Titles include Dog Is My Copilot, No Other Home (with professional soccer player Matt Besler), Flipping Brilliant: A Penguin’s Guide to Happy Life, and Hallmark: A Century of Caring. Patrick has also worked as a freelance editor and manuscript doctor and writes books for a wide range of private clients including corporations, foundations, and institutions.