{Book review} Ultramarathon man: Confessions of an all-night runner

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Ultramarathon man: Confessions of an all-night runner

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This is the first book that Dean Karnazes wrote. You might be wondering, who's Dean Karnazes? He's simply one of the greateast ultramarathonists of all times, just like that.

The book begins with a very funny anecdote, in which the author tells a situation that he went through during one of his long runs. He was absolutely in the middle of nowhere, running at night by a route in California and he calls a pizza place to get some food/fuel to keep on running. He tells them to deliver it to the intersection of two routes and the guy that's talking to him can barely believe what's he listening to. After some time, he gets his order delivered by guy who talked with him over the phone, who was still astonished by this random guy that had been running for several hours in the middle of nowhere and in the night... Well, who wouldn't?

As pages go by, Dean's story gets told, how he had always been pretty athletic and from one moment to another, he forgets about the love he had for running. Until his 30th birthday, in which he realized that he was wasting his life... and so, just out of the blue, he decides to celebrate running 30 miles. After this, his life had changed forever.

Then, when this part of the book is over, the second one starts. In this one, Dean talks about three extreme experiences he went through: his first 100 mile race, Badwater race (135 mile race in the Death Valley) and being the first human ever to complete a marathon in the South Pole. I have to say all this made my jaw drop, it's insane how this man achieved endurance and keeps challenging himself to see how hard and far he can push himself. He is truly an inspiration.

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Interesting information

• Author: Dean Karnazes
• Published in: 2006
• Genre: Autobiography
• Wanna learn more about Dean? Go to www.ultramarathonman.com

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Quotes

I wanted to share with you some motivational quotes that I found out to be really interesting about the book:

If you can't run, then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. Do what you have to do. Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up.

Running has taught me that the pursuit of a passion matter more than the passion itself. Immerse yourself in something deeply and with the heartfelt intensity -continually improve, never give up- this is fulfillment, this is success.

People think I'm crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. Dostoyevsky had it right: 'Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.' Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner.

Sometimes you've got to go through hell to get to heaven.

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My opinion on the book

I absolutely loved this book. I think it's pretty interesting whether you're a runner or not, it teaches you that no matter what you want in life, anything can be achieved with compromise, effort and sacrifice... Personally, I've been into long-distance running since I was 16 years old, so I do understand his love for greater distances, but I never thought that someone could run that long or under such extreme circumstances. I highly recommend this book to everybody.