Scan barcode
protoman21's review against another edition
5.0
Simply amazing! Dean's books are incredibly inspiring and motivational. Reading about his astounding accomplishments definitely makes me want to get out there and challenge myself. I loved the surprise in the epilogue...wow!
t8zzyuk's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
jacki_f's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't enjoy this book as much as Ultramarathon Man, but it's still a good read. This book is about the Endurance 50, when Dean Karnazes took on 50 marathons in 50 states over 50 days. Unlike Dean's first book, this is probably 50% sports auto-biography and 50% running guide with tips on topics like nutrition, training regimes, shoe election and stretching. The inclusion of so much advice seems a bit odd, but presumably these are the sorts of things that Dean gets asked about on a regular basis.
Dean starts the book by telling us that he is just an ordinary man with no superpowers or amazing genetic make-up. I don't know how he figures that unless the fact that he hangs out with so many other ultramarathon runners has severely skewed his perspective. He ran the 50 consecutive marathons on an average of 4.5 hours sleep a night, with a headcold and severe blisters - and he had no ill effects whatsoever. Although he claims that he wrote the book to explain how he did this, I have to admit that I finished it none the wiser. The man is amazing.
Having said that I was very interested in the sections of the book where he talks about the techniques he uses to motivate himself when he doesn't feel like running or the ways that he finds the strength to keep running when he feels like he can't manage another step because it all hurts too much.
And get this: when Dean finishes his 50th run in New York, he realizes that no one has booked a flight home for him to California. So he loads his gear into a baby stroller and starts running. He sleeps in parks and eats on the go, ending up in Missouri several weeks and some 1500 miles later. Then in true Forrest Gump style, he stops abruptly and decides that he misses his family and its time to go home. (All I could think when I was reading this is "your poor wife - she's been managing the family on her own for weeks and you're not going home to help out?!") The man is most definitely not average - but that's what makes his books so fascinating. I can't wait to see what he gets up to next.
Dean starts the book by telling us that he is just an ordinary man with no superpowers or amazing genetic make-up. I don't know how he figures that unless the fact that he hangs out with so many other ultramarathon runners has severely skewed his perspective. He ran the 50 consecutive marathons on an average of 4.5 hours sleep a night, with a headcold and severe blisters - and he had no ill effects whatsoever. Although he claims that he wrote the book to explain how he did this, I have to admit that I finished it none the wiser. The man is amazing.
Having said that I was very interested in the sections of the book where he talks about the techniques he uses to motivate himself when he doesn't feel like running or the ways that he finds the strength to keep running when he feels like he can't manage another step because it all hurts too much.
And get this: when Dean finishes his 50th run in New York, he realizes that no one has booked a flight home for him to California. So he loads his gear into a baby stroller and starts running. He sleeps in parks and eats on the go, ending up in Missouri several weeks and some 1500 miles later. Then in true Forrest Gump style, he stops abruptly and decides that he misses his family and its time to go home. (All I could think when I was reading this is "your poor wife - she's been managing the family on her own for weeks and you're not going home to help out?!") The man is most definitely not average - but that's what makes his books so fascinating. I can't wait to see what he gets up to next.
annie_explores's review against another edition
2.0
The athletic feat is awesome, the writing is clichéd and tiresomely focused on brand promoting.
rishabh1305's review against another edition
Got the gist of the book 📕,and also
runner's mindset.
Beside that already watched YouTube ▶️ - 50/50 .
runner's mindset.
Beside that already watched YouTube ▶️ - 50/50 .
midwinteraz's review
2.0
The writing was a little light and fluffy for my taste, but it was still a nice overview of his 50-day journey. The running tips were almost too general to be useful, but I guess it would be a good starting point for a newbie runner.
michael5000's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
I have to admit that I started this book with the intention of laughing at the unbridled excess that is manifest in the title. But! It turns out that this is an interesting book. In addition to being, at least partially intentionally, a window into what seems to be a relatively benign, even productive, form of obsessive behavior, it's also not a bad general guide to running. Karnazes (and his ghost, Matt Fitzgerald) embodies my favorite thing about running culture, the mutual support of the very fast, the very slow, and everybody in-between. He and I are pursuing qualitatively and quantitatively different goals, to put it mildly, but there is a lot of information and advice in here that I can bring to my own slow plodding. That's cool.
hmonkeyreads's review against another edition
1.0
Not a fan of the book or the guy. I used to like him - he's a pretty amazing athelte -- but this book just annoyed me. How many times can he tell me how many people find him so awesome that they drove/flew hundreds of miles and disrupted their entire life to spend 26.2 miles with Karno? I'll tell you how many - 50 times! If you are a veteran runner this book holds no new tips and it's really just a big book how how "great" he is. Glad I borrowed this instead of paying money for it.
tinnytree's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, this really was a highly motivating and interesting book. Being a runner of course is part of the reason why I enjoyed this book so much.
Halfway through this book, I thought Dean was the best guy ever, a guy that can handle any difficulty, a guy who is willing to give his time to anyone and a guy who is generally interested in giving back to the community. He makes small chitchat with everyone, he encourages all other runners no matter what condition they are and he gives and supports many charities even though he is this superhuman ultramarathon machine.
At the halfway mark I was going to give this 5 stars, I was ready to give this 5 stars, there was no way I couldn't not give this 5 stars. Then I realised, apart from the first few marathons he didn't really do the locations justice, a few of the marathons he didn't actually write anything about that race. Nothing about the location, scenery or people. He would go off on tangents which while interesting had nothing to do with that particular race. So that was disappointing, it would have been nice to even just have a paragraph description of that marathon instead of just stats.
Anyway thats not too much of a problem, even without the marathon descriptions, this book is still brilliant until we get to the end. Towards the end Dean was off on another tangent about priorities in life, talking about how everyone is too busy when they actually aren't and how to time manager and prioritise better yada yada yada. During this chapter he states that his priorities are 1. family and 2. running. Which is great and what he is supposed to say but....
Firstly his family is great and has obviously made huge sacrifices for him during his 50 marathons. Although sometimes there were there with him at the end of in between, they obviously didnt spend too much time with him due to his hectic schedule.
So once his 50 marathons are over, you would expect him since his number 1 priority is his FAMILY to go back to his home and spend time with his kids, wife, parents doing all that sort of family stuff. Obviously he would keep running but would be putting his family first for awhile after everything they suffered. But..
No straight after his 50 marathons he selfishly goes running off and living like a homeless person (rich one though) for gods knows how long, probably a month or two. I can't understand how that is putting your family first before running.
Sorry long review but that pissed me off a bit. Other than that a good book and worthy of 4 stars but next time write that your number 1 priority is running Dean. You're not fooling anyone.
Halfway through this book, I thought Dean was the best guy ever, a guy that can handle any difficulty, a guy who is willing to give his time to anyone and a guy who is generally interested in giving back to the community. He makes small chitchat with everyone, he encourages all other runners no matter what condition they are and he gives and supports many charities even though he is this superhuman ultramarathon machine.
At the halfway mark I was going to give this 5 stars, I was ready to give this 5 stars, there was no way I couldn't not give this 5 stars. Then I realised, apart from the first few marathons he didn't really do the locations justice, a few of the marathons he didn't actually write anything about that race. Nothing about the location, scenery or people. He would go off on tangents which while interesting had nothing to do with that particular race. So that was disappointing, it would have been nice to even just have a paragraph description of that marathon instead of just stats.
Anyway thats not too much of a problem, even without the marathon descriptions, this book is still brilliant until we get to the end. Towards the end Dean was off on another tangent about priorities in life, talking about how everyone is too busy when they actually aren't and how to time manager and prioritise better yada yada yada. During this chapter he states that his priorities are 1. family and 2. running. Which is great and what he is supposed to say but....
Firstly his family is great and has obviously made huge sacrifices for him during his 50 marathons. Although sometimes there were there with him at the end of in between, they obviously didnt spend too much time with him due to his hectic schedule.
So once his 50 marathons are over, you would expect him since his number 1 priority is his FAMILY to go back to his home and spend time with his kids, wife, parents doing all that sort of family stuff. Obviously he would keep running but would be putting his family first for awhile after everything they suffered. But..
No straight after his 50 marathons he selfishly goes running off and living like a homeless person (rich one though) for gods knows how long, probably a month or two. I can't understand how that is putting your family first before running.
Sorry long review but that pissed me off a bit. Other than that a good book and worthy of 4 stars but next time write that your number 1 priority is running Dean. You're not fooling anyone.