In North Korea's famous, silent capital, glossy facades hide immeasurable pain and misery. Marathoner Marc Nexon finds himself trapped in the oppressive atmosphere: no cheering spectators on the sidelines, no banners, nothing. Just grey, anonymous men supervising runners at every intersection, and down one street, a row of military trucks. And everywhere, loudspeakers. What goes through Nexon's mind as he crosses the world's most sequestered city, in shorts and sneakers made across the border in China? Does he, a foreign correspondent who spent his career covering the Eastern bloc, believe in sports open dialogues? Or is this race a mad political act, a bizarre form of activism?