I wrote a book

(Again)

by Paolo Marconi

In April 2022, I published my first book titled “Figli di uno sport minore”. It was the post-Covid era, and like many millions of others, I had the time and opportunity to pause and reflect on what I was doing with my life as an athlete. That reflection led me to write my story, a story that is deeply connected with the story of SUP. In my first book, published only in Italian, I shared not just my sporting journey, but also what it means to be a professional athlete in a minor sport like ours. The countless airport adventures, the trips accompanied by our over-4-meter-long boards, the amazing community of friends that share unique experiences during the racing season, and above all, the many lessons a sport like ours can teach.

“Figli di uno sport minore” begins from the end, it starts telling my experience at the Salivoli Backyard Challenge, an 8-hour SUP adventure in my homespot. It was after this event that I started reflecting on how I had managed to paddle over 60 kilometers in open sea, not in pain, but with deep awareness and satisfaction. That reflection became the starting point of the story told in my first book.

After the publication of “Figli di uno sport minore”, the water kept flowing beneath my board. I entered a new phase in my life as an athlete, I became a father and my daily routine was transformed. Every training session took on a new meaning, and my priorities shifted.
Despite this, I continued to explore the many facets of sport, pushing my limits and seeking new Ultra Endurance experiences through both SUP and running. And so, at the end of 2022, I took part in one of the most special and overwhelming races of my career, one I had the honor of winning: the Last Paddler Standing.
This race, which lasted two days, paddling day and night, completely changed the way I view SUP and sport in general. It was a transformative experience and I felt the need to share it. That’s when the idea began to take shape in my mind: to tell the story of this adventure and the milestones that led me to win one of the toughest races in the world.
With a touch of self-irony, I realized that what I had written in my first book was only the beginning, a kind of preparation for a much greater journey of self-discovery through sport. And so, a new project was born. I wanted to translate “Figli di uno sport minore” into English and expand it with new stories of the experiences that launched me into the world of Ultra Endurance.

We live in a world where communication moves at a frantic pace, where every small detail of our daily lives is shared and consumed by the social media audience. A world where we dwell on sensational headlines designed to provoke outrage, without even knowing what they’re truly about. A world where sponsors no longer look for strong athletes in sports, but strong personalities on social media, where followers often matter more than substance. This is not a world I truly belong to, and what I had experienced through my Ultra Endurance adventures deserved deeper reflection. It deserved more time to pause, to understand what I had lived through, and to explore what can be learned from the lessons that Ultra Endurance has to offer. And so, the project of a new book in English began to take shape.
Writing a book in a language that isn’t my native tongue was far from easy. Self-publishing added even more challenges: multiple rounds of editing, countless re-readings, reflections on how best to convey the emotions I felt, both on the water and off, and conversations with English-speaking friends and acquaintances who read early drafts of the manuscript and shared their feedback. The result is a handcrafted piece of work to which I dedicated nearly two years of my life.
Writing a book is always an intimate and introspective journey. It forced me to look inward and open myself up to potential readers, sharing my weaknesses, my strengths, and a few tricks of the trade I’ve learned along the way through my Ultra experiences.

The book is titled “Racing the Quit Monkey”. This title came about when I was almost finished with the book. It emerged after I reflected on my journey in sports and Ultra Endurance. The figure of the Quit Monkey is not my invention; it is a creation of Kristin Thomas, who used the term during the live stream of the Last Paddler Standing to refer to that inner voice that urges us to quit in the toughest situations. Looking back on my story, I recalled countless conversations with my Quit Monkey, and so I decided to explore my relationship with it, describing how it behaves and how I reacted to push forward on the path of Ultra Endurance. I hope that anyone who gets the chance to read “Racing the Quit Monkey” can relate to some of the stories and perhaps find inspiration to challenge themselves and seek their own path of personal and athletic growth. In my first book, I talk about how sport can be a valuable teacher, helping us face daily life with more confidence. In “Racing the Quit Monkey”, I portray the world of Ultra Endurance as an even wiser teacher, imparting values that help shape men and women who can navigate the challenges of life with greater awareness.

The foreword of the book was written by Betsy Ray, owner of SUPRacer.com, the most authoritative voice in our small sports world. The fact that Betsy appreciated my project and took the time to write the foreword is truly an honor for me. “Racing the Quit Monkey” is now available on various online platforms and, I hope, soon in many physical bookstores. It has been published exclusively in English, thanks in part to the many requests from SUP enthusiasts outside of Italy who wanted to read “Figli di uno sport minore”. I hope it can reach both SUP and Ultra Endurance enthusiasts, but also serve as a small source of inspiration to draw people into sport, because fatigue is not something to avoid, but something to embrace in order to gain valuable lessons.

Below, I’ve included the text from the back cover, which explains what the Quit Monkey means to me:

“The Quit Monkey is that little voice in our head that visits us when we are doing hard or unpleasant things. It might show up during a race, a training session, or, most commonly, in our everyday life. It is the little demon that everybody deals with. Sometimes, it jumps into our mind when we are pushing through the last interval of a hard training session. Other times, it just wants us to eat that extra piece of cake after a big meal. You can cope with the Quit Monkey pretty easily, but the harder you test yourself, the more you will have to face it, trying to understand how it behaves.”

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