I love to go on “running vacations”. This used to mean a long weekend someplace running a Spartan or Tough Mudder race. But it has progressed to full 1-2 week vacations with other runners. I know it sounds like a sickness. Who would enjoy starting each vacation day with a 5-mile run? Well, there are a lot of us. Check out my favorite company at VR Global Adventures.

Recently I was on a 2 week trip to Ecuador where we would run and be tourists in the Andes Mountains, Amazon Rainforest, and Galapagos Islands. At the beginning of the trip I had a dream about a murder mystery story plot. After consulting several writer friends, I decided to write the story and to weave it into the vacation I was on. So, the murder happened in Ecuador on the first day of our vacation trip. The suspects are all of my fellow runners on vacation. Each day I wrote a short chapter on my phone and then posted it to our shared WhatsApp channel. So everyone on the trip is in the story and following its progress one day at a time.

It has been an enormous hit with my fellow runners. The first and second draft of the manuscript are finished. I’m working on the third right now.

I am sharing part of that draft with all of you. It still has a long way to go, but it has been an exciting side project. Download PDF.