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Warren Richey stopped by last Sunday to read and autograph his travel narrative and memoir about his race around Florida.

Each year, on the third Monday in April, runners from around the world converge upon Boston's winding streets for the city's marathon.

To finish, the participants must run 26 miles.

It's a daunting challenge. Can you imagine doing it not just once though, but every day for one month?

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Warren Richey can after kayaking in the Ultimate Florida Challenge, a race that involves traveling 1200 miles around the state's waterways. It also includes a 40-mile portage where racers must move their boats by themselves across land as they travel from the St. Mary's river to the Suwannee.

"It's the subtropical version of Alaska's Iditarod," Richey said before a packed audience at the Bookends store in Winchester on Sunday. He was promoting "Without a Paddle," a book inspired by his participation in the Ultimate Florida Challenge.

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"It's not like a race. It's more like a dare or threat," Richey said as he autographed and read his book, Without a Paddle at the bookstore. The book is a travel narrative and memoir of his race around Florida.

His claim does not sound like an exaggeration when you consider that each participant must navigate the waters in and around Florida within 30 days. This means that they need to average at least 40 miles per day.

"Some days you're going to run into storms, so you want some miles in the bank," Richey said. "What I like about this race is you are on your own."

Although there are checkpoints around Florida where the racers can re-supply their kayaks or canoes, they are truly alone in the water. Richey spent up to18 hours in his kayak each day and the remaining time was spent on the beach making his one prepared meal of the day and catching about four hours of sleep at night.

"Food is really important," Richey said. "You want to eat a lot. Every three hours I'd eat a meal, a little meal. You lose 6,000 calories each day, so you have to take food you like to eat. I had bagels, lots of bagels. They're easy to eat while paddling, along with Snickers bars."

But making sure that he ate enough was not the only challenge for Warren Richey.

"When you travel like this you will miss some sleep," he said. "And when the sun goes down you hallucinate. The other thing that happens is you are forced to confront your life. And you better be able to deal with it, because it won't go away."

One aspect of his life that Richey evaluated was his relationship with his girlfriend, Linda Feldman, a native of Winchester. During the race he decided that if he were on the beach at the finish line he would propose to her on the spot.

There were times though when Richey wondered if his kayak would make it to the end.

"The defining moment is being offshore at night," he said.  "At night alone in the boat, everything seems dangerous. Bad stuff happens late at night when you're tired.

But Richey never capsized his kayak, even though he came close on a couple of occasions. At one point he even ran into a shark that tried unsuccessfully to get his paddle.

"It's an act of faith," Richey said. "You have to know what happens you're going to handle. Your physical strength doesn't come from your arms, but your mind and heart."

And why did Warren Richey, who previously had only traveled 300 miles in a single race, decide to kayak the challenging 1200 mile Ultimate Florida Challenge?

"You're pushing yourself beyond anyplace you've been, doing something you thought was impossible," he said.

It sounds like something a runner entering the Boston Marathon might say, but with one difference.

"No one survives this unchanged," Richey said.

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