Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes Book Review
If you like to listen to my review, check out my podcast episode over this book.
What’s this book about?
The start of Dean Karnazes running career. He mentions how he worked a corporate job while running ultramarathons. Later, he’ll mention in his other book, Runners High, that he quit his corporate job a couple years later and went into running full time.
The big question that Dean tries to answer in the book is why does he like running so much? There’s no definite answer, and it’s hard to pin point why you run and why you run that far.
Whose Dean Karnazes?
The title of the book states it, but he’s the ultramarathon man. This is all he does now, and he’s known for it.
It’s hard getting known running ultramarathons because you don’t get much attention unless you do crazy feats like what Dean did and win races like Courtney Dauwater.
The sport is getting more well known now, so it might be easier to get recognized in the sport than when Dean started in the late 90's.
My review:
I love his description of his races. In this book, he talks about his casual runs and the one he did when he started running his first marathon. This marathon was crazy where he wanted more out of his life. He was slightly intoxicated at a work gathering when he left early, and he figured ‘lets run’. He didn’t stop until he ran a marathon. This gave him the taste of what a marathon feels like, and he’s never looked back.
Some notable races he mentions in this book are the Badwater race (100 miler at Death Valley) and running a marathon (26.2 miles) at Antartica. This means he ran at the hottest and coldest places on Earth.
If you’re into running and looking for inspiration to run a marathon or above, check out this book. It’s a great book on his journey of running.
What did I like?
1. Description of the races
The description makes it seem like you’re running the race with him. I love this. I could feel the pain, the cold, the heat, and going to Taco Bell (his favorite place to go while he runs long distance) with him for refuel.
What did I not like?
- Nothing. Solid book. In his other book, Runners High, I wouldn’t have minded how he transitioned from a 9–5 job to running full time. He briefly mentions it with sponsorships, but I wanted more detail on how he was able to get these sponsorships, how much money he makes from them, and if he’ll have to go back to a corporate job.
That’s it for this review. Solid book. When I read it this year, it has motivated me to run one 100 miler in my life. Let’s do this.
If you want to get the book, here’s it is (note: I’m not getting comission off of this link):
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