Paolo Marconi is one of the “original” stand up paddleboard racers. The first year he raced internationally, 2011, was the year that SUP Racer was founded. That’s fourteen years of top level SUP racing. So when it comes to talking about what it means to be a stand up paddleboard racer, there’s not many who can compete with Paolo.

But in “Racing the Quit Monkey”, Paolo shares a journey that has been about much more than racing.

“The Child of a Minor Sport”

He started writing the book during the pandemic, when many people found themselves with more time to reflect. The first version was in Italian: “Figli di uno sport minore”, which roughly translates as “the child of a minor sport”. The book’s timeline ended on his “Salivoli Backyard Challenge”, a “backyard ultra” style self-directed challenge where Paolo spent 8 hours paddling loops on the sea in his “homespot” of Salivoli, in Piombino, Italy just across from the island of Elba. Little did he know it at the time, but that moment was the start of his next chapter: ultra paddle racing.

A New Chapter

As Paolo fell in love with ultra running and ultra paddle racing over the next couple of years, he found a new piece of his SUP racing identity. When Kristin Thomas (KT) mentioned the “Quit Monkey” during the 2022 Last Paddler Standing live stream commentary, Paolo was finally able to put a name to the feeling that had been haunting him on the water. In his own words, the Quit Monkey is “that little voice in our head that visits us when we are doing hard or unpleasant things”.

The more that Paolo pushed his body and deepened his passion for ultra paddle racing, the better he got to know his Quit Monkey. And the more he realised he needed to write the next chapter of his SUP racing journey.

A Word Before the Foreword

I was honoured to write the foreword to “Racing the Quit Monkey: An ultra endurance journey”. In lieu of a traditional book review, I’ll leave you with a copy of that foreword here on supracer.com. You can buy “Racing the Quit Monkey” here, or from major online book stores including Amazon, eBay, and Barnes & Noble. Search “racing the quit monkey paolo marconi” to find a copy in your country.

Foreword to “Racing The Quit Monkey”, by Paolo Marconi, Published May 2025

I first got to know Paolo through the screen. On a quiet lake in Florida in December 2022, Paolo’s paddleboard cut calmly through glassy black water in the wee hours of the morning. This was lap number 43, and he looked just as cool and collected as he had in the first lap 43 hours ago.

My colleague, SUP Racer founder Chris Parker, was commentating the race’s live stream from his studio at home in Australia. Between yawns, he was doing his best to keep the online audience entertained through the second “Graveyard Shift”. 18 intrepid stand up paddleboarders had started the race on Saturday morning. By 03:30 Monday morning, only three remained. Paolo was one of them.

Before this race, Last Paddler Standing, even existed, Paolo had done his own “backyard ultra” at home, entirely by coincidence. Eight kilometers every hour, on the hour, for 8 hours. Why? In Paolo’s words, it was his “desire to find new motivations and expand my perspective on Stand Up Paddling”. Put another way: it’s just the type of person he is. But exactly what kind of person paddles alone in circles for eight hours to find motivation?

I asked Susak Molinero to describe Paolo in two words. Susak is an elite SUP racer who speaks Catalan, Spanish, Italian, and English; and she’s Paolo’s wife. Could she be any more qualified to find the right words to describe Paolo?

“Determination and constancy.”

Susak explains how rigorously Paolo follows his own self-discipline rules. They used to practice yoga religiously, but now that they have a child, she says “maybe I wake up tired, and I skip yoga one day. But Paolo? No. He has to say hi to the sun.” With meditation, it’s the same. Every day, at the same time. Paolo’s dedication to his mental and physical wellbeing is unshakeable.

Watching Paolo at Last Paddler Standing, it’s precisely Paolo’s determination and constancy that are being tested by this brutal race. They are the qualities that have gotten him to the start line every hour, on the hour, for the last two days.

On the live stream, three paddlers finish Lap 43, and hop off the water for a brief rest before the next lap. Chris Parker’s voice is still crackling through the speakers from Australia, but the “last commentator standing” is struggling: “I’m losing it man. I actually changed all the clocks here to be on Florida time,” Chris says to Goran Gustavsson who’d dropped out of the race earlier and joined the commentary team from Florida. And yet, Chris can’t quite bring himself to hand over the reins and take a nap – what if he misses some of the action?

At 4am, Lap 44 begins. The forty-fourth hour of paddling. On screen, they’re just shadowy figures moving into view, standing on the beach briefly with their boards, and slipping away into the quiet night. But how many shadowy figures? Was that just two?  What’s happened to the third paddler?

I won’t spoil the rest of the race because Paolo recounts it better than I ever could. Suffice to say that what I saw on the live stream wasn’t the whole story. At this point in the race, Paolo was like a duck swimming upstream: above the water, he appeared calm and serene. Below the water, he was paddling furiously: battling hallucinations, dizziness, and his personal “Quit Monkey”. 

Looking at Paolo’s extraordinary SUP racing career and ultra racing prowess, it’s easy to feel like he’s the exception. We chalk up his success in ultra races to the fact that he’s a professional, he races stand up paddleboards as his full time job, and maybe he’s just built differently from the rest of us.

But in “Racing the Quit Monkey”, Paolo invites us inside his head. He takes us by the hand to the highs and lows of his career, the sacrifices and the glories. We join him on his board when he’s first discovering the wonders of the sea as a child, exploring the craggy coastlines of Italy. We find ourselves stuck in an airport lounge, and then another one, and another one, trying to make it to the legendary Battle of the Paddle in time to race. We glance up in the middle of his first ultra running race to take in sweeping views of Gran Canaria. We meet Paolo’s Quit Monkey, and struggle alongside him to learn how to fight it.

Paolo’s Quit Monkey feels familiar. It’s that voice, when you’re struggling, that whispers: “just give up”. Perhaps you’re an elite athlete, trying to complete an ultra endurance challenge but your body is screaming in pain and exhaustion. Or you’re a part timer balancing sport with work and life, trying to get yourself out of bed for a morning training session when the rest of the day is already packed with responsibilities, and the Quit Monkey tries to nudge you back into bed… It whispers, ‘Wouldn’t it just be easier to skip the session today? Surely you have more important things to do.’

I often feel like I spend all day fighting my own Quit Monkey. I’ve left a corporate career to pursue independent sports journalism full time, covering this tiny sport of paddling that I love with my whole being. My Quit Monkey asks me, ‘What makes you think you can achieve your dreams?’ It insists I should be more practical, be less ambitious, stop trying to do things I’ll inevitably fail at. Reading Paolo’s story reminded me of my own “why”. You might just find a reminder of yours in this book too.