Maxi’s story is a novel about a marathon runner who uses science to contest the Olympics. She competes on the international marathon circuit with elite women, steadily improving her performance time. Her training regimen is inspired by her ascetic faith in ‘extreme flow’ to hone her skills to automaticity and stretch time to achieve her performance goal. She learns by self-coaching to centre herself with Zen and flow’s timelessness. Maxi learns to control her performance time and is not held below any performance ceilings set by coaches, competitors or records. Guided by her team of experts, she explores her endurance to stay inside the edge of bonking, when her muscles would be functionally depleted of glycogen.

Her boyfriend Jack is a physics PhD who encourages her, explaining to her scientific techniques she can use to improve. Extreme flow requires full mental engagement, to achieve neural impulse speeds close to the maximum electro-magnetic speed in the neural medium’s faster time framework, causing her time to dilate as explained by Einstein’s special relativity.

When she travels to contest championships, Jack and her retinue of specialists attend to her physical, nutritive and social needs and to her business interests. Maxi is fun-loving and enjoys time out from her training schedule and social activities. She seldom self-indulges, because her goal is to succeed in the marathon and it is always before her.

This is a story of athletic achievement by serious training in physiological, psychological, metaphysical and Zen disciplines. Jack helps her, explaining several techniques, but she is the one who controls her training. Will she win at the coming Olympic Games? Will her relationship with Jack survive if she does? What if she doesn’t?

Time is Gold is an exciting science fiction story of a woman’s bid for fame. Martin Knox has authored six novels in various genres. He is an engineer and science teacher with an abiding interest in philosophy and explaining complex ideas simply, who in this book describes the phenomenon of performer endurance, for practical application.

The book is available on Amazon. For reviews see martinknox.com