Friday, July 20, 2012

Run!: 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss by Dean Karnazes

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

In his follow-up to the best-selling Ultra-Marathon Man, world-renowned ultra marathoner Dean Karnazes chronicles his unbelievable exploits and explorations in gripping detail; Karnazes runs for days on end without rest, across some of the most exotic and inhospitable places on earth, including the Australian Outback, Antarctica, and the back alleys of New Jersey.
From the downright hilarious to the truly profound, the stories in Run! provide readers with the ultimate escape and offer a rare glimpse into the mindset and motivation of an extreme athlete, one who has, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Not only pushed the envelope but blasted it to bits.”
Karnazes addresses pain and perseverance, and he also charts the emotional as he pushes to the edges of human achievement. The tales of the friendships he’s cultivated on his many adventures around the world warm the heart, and are sure to captivate and inspire readers whether they run great distances, modest distances, or not at all.
The hardcover edition was met with the enthusiastic support of Karnazes’s devoted fan base, and word-of-mouth excitement as well as media coverage from LIVE! with Regis and Kelly brought the book to the attention of scores of new readers. Karnazes’s colorful tales of his extreme running adventures are as entertaining as they are innately human, giving the book potential as a perennial paperback favorite.

My thoughts:
Until recently I don't know how aware I was of ultrarunning, I knew about marathons but I am not sure I was aware people ran even longer races.  Reading about the dedication and training runners go through to run races of 50 miles or more I wonder if I have that in me, but I am suspecting I do not.  I've seen Dean's picture in running magazines, espcially for Road ID ads, but I didn't know about him specifically until I picked this book up at the library.

I liked how Dean tells of not only his successes, but also of his failures to complete races and times he ended up in need of medical care due to some of these races, specifically Badwater which happens during the summer in Death Valley.  Dean had to attempt his one more than once to finish it.  To me this shows that even the best trained athletes are not infallible and that a setback or disappointment is just that, you don;t have to quit a sport or an endeavor just because it didn't work out the first time.

One of the feats Dean attempts is to break the Guinness Book World Record for miles run on a treadmill in a 48 hour period.  He did this for the Live!  With Regis and Kelly show and was on air or online for the 48 hour attempt with a representative nearby to authenticate his performance.  The record holder is a non athlete who goes around breaking records from the book.  After reading about his training and the times he has won the coveted Silver Belt Buckle for completing endurance events in under 24 hours I doubt that the record holder was truthful in the number they submitted.

An analogy that stuck with me is that we are all in cages with the doors open, it is our fear that keeps us from attempting our dreams.  The only thing holding us back is ourselves!

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781605292793
  • Publisher: Rodale Press, Inc.
  • Publication date: 3/1/2011
  • Pages: 272

Meet the Author

Dean Karnazes was named by Time magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World. A New York Times bestselling author, he has written for Runner’s World and Men’s Health. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

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