While I was training for the Ironman I read a couple of autobiographies by ultramarathon runners. General curiosity was certainly a factor, but I think I was also seeking out stories of endurance athletics even more extreme than what I was about to engage in, perhaps to make the Ironman seem less impossible.

Dean Karnazes is the self-styled Ultramarathon Man and that’s the title of his memoir. The book starts with his early running years and then his re-discovery of distance running after a thirtieth-birthday-sparked middle-life crisis moment. The book also covers his first time at the Western States Endurance Run (a 100-miler), a failed attempt at the Badwater 135 (which he did later go on to win), a running expedition to the South Pole, and a solo run at The Relay, a 200-miler usually run by teams. He’s not the most decorated of ultramarathoners, but he is, perhaps, the most self-promoting. I can’t dispute his accomplishments, but there’s something about his self-aggrandizing tone that really rubs me the wrong way. I mean, when someone brings up their tragically-deceased sister as an inspiration and your first thought is “oh, this again”, well, I think it’s safe to say you don’t find them a sympathetic character.

FuzzyCo grade: Ugh

Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run was a lot more my speed*. Scott is featured heavily in Born to Run and so I was curious to learn his own perspective. Scott Jurek is also an ultrarunner and has won quite a few ultramarathons and set course records in many of them. So if anything he has the standing to brag, but instead his outlook seems pretty humble. My paraphrase of the book would be “I’m seem to be pretty good at running really far and I like doing it, but I don’t know if it means anything and anyway it broke up my marriage and cost me my best friend, so who knows. Oh, and you should be a vegan.” Every chapter in the book ends with a vegan recipe, and while I’m not going vegan anytime soon, some of them look quite good and I’m looking forward to trying them out.

FuzzyCo grade: A

If I didn’t enjoy Ultramarathon Man, why did I read Run!: 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss? Well, I already had it out from the library and it seemed short. And I wanted to give Dean a second chance. My mistake. This book of random essays screams “contractual obligation”. And it’s even more Dean-is-so-awesome-tastic. There’s a whole chapter that’s just fan mail.

FuzzyCo grade: Blerg

* See what I did there?