Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America

by Christopher McDougall

Three years after that horrible day, Jim Smucker enlisted the Amish community to help create the Bird-in-Hand Half Marathon. By modern race standards, it’s primitive. There’s no big expo full of merchandise, just a registration tent in a hayfield. There’s no get-fired-up! music, only a Mennonite family on their front porch at Mile 2 singing gospel. But Bird-in-Hand is now ranked as one of the best and most memorable races in the country, partly because of the sheer beauty of the Valley of No Wires, but mostly because of the warmth and friendliness of the Amish hosts. All the aid stations are at Amish farms, with rows of children holding out cups and chanting “Vater, vater, vater, Powerade, Powerade…” All the food for the post-race picnic—the mountains of barbecued chicken and home-baked beans, the cider doughnuts and schnitz pies—is donated and served by Amish families. Every one of the finishers’ medals is a real horseshoe that’s been hand-burnished and laced by a Vella Shpringa volunteer. Everyone goes home with a race tee reminding them of the Vella Shpringa motto, “The joy of running in community.” And every penny that’s raised is donated by the Amish community to their friends in the Bird-in-Hand Volunteer Fire Company.