'All in Stride' With Olympic Author Johanna Garton

Dying To Ask: Road to Paris

The American dream and the Olympic dream collide in Johanna Garton's new book, "All in Stride."

All in Stride: A Journey in Running, Courage and the Search for the American Dream is about Olympian Shadrack Kipchirchir and his wife, Sgt. Elvin Kibet, two American professional runners.

Both competed in February's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Shadrack competed for Team USA in the 10,000m at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

Johanna Garton is a longtime Colorado-based endurance sports writer who met the married couple in Denver.

All in Stride tells the story of how the runners independently made their way from Kenyan villages to American colleges, the military and professional running.

Their American dream turns into an Olympic dream as each pushes to represent their new country. Their adjustment to American culture isn't easy and includes brushes with bigotry and intolerance.

"I heard about this program that was part of the U.S. Army based in Colorado Springs. It was soldiers in the U.S. Army who also were training to become world class athletes. I went down and spent time at one of their workouts, and I happened to meet Shadrack, who's kind of the main character in this book," says Johanna.

Johanna Garton started her career as an immigration lawyer. But her love of distance running won out career-wise. She transitioned to sports writing and writes mainly about endurance sports. Johanna ran for Syracuse University as a walk-on. She's run more than 20 marathons including five Boston Marathons . And, she even made it to Everest Base Camp in 2022.

On this Dying to Ask:

What it's like when the American dream and the Olympic dream collide

The role the US Army plays in helping athletes get to the Olympics

The special role Team USA's immigrant athletes play in the Olympic experience