Five-Hour Pilgrim

Five Hour Pilgrim is a Story of Endurance, Loss and the Search for Meaning. Standing on the edge of middle age, Tom Cottrell refuses the quiet drift into mediocrity. Instead, he makes a reckless and deeply personal vow: to run a marathon on every continent in the year he turns fifty, raise money for hospice care, and write a book about what he discovers – read more

What others say –

Tom Cottrell writes with a raw honesty about events and feelings that most of us try to avoid, much less to express in public. His philosophy of goodness and indestructible optimism has been forged by hardship that began before his birth.  Yet he has never faltered.  How do we measure personal success? When you have read this book you will know that your definition can never again be the same.   Here is the story of a life lived to the full.  A life without the need for excuses. Not now. Not ever. – Professor Tim Noakes – University of Cape Town and Sports Science Institute of South Africa.  Author of Lore of Running.

Husbandhood, fatherhood, Southafricanism, travelogue, success and failure and which is which, a pinch of Gibran and a dash of Descartes… Tom turns his runner’s eyes to a startlingly wide world, and records it with unveiled pen.
– Denis Beckett – Award winning author, publisher, TV producer

Tom writes and runs in the heartbeat of every moment. The reader runs with him. – Dr. Dorian Haarhoff – Former Professor of English Literature, University of Namibia. Writer, mentor, poet, storyteller Author of The Writer’s Voice