<div dir="ltr"><div>All, <br></div><div>Please find below and attached William Steele's review of Dean Karnazes, <i>A Runner's High.</i></div><div>Thanks</div><div>Duncan</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dean
Karnazes. <i>A Runner’s High: My Life in Motion.</i> New York: Harper Collins,
2021. 246 pp. Cloth, $27.99.<span></span></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Reviewed
by William Steele, Ph.D., Professor of English, Lipscomb University<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>In his 2006 book <i>Ultramarathon
Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner</i>, Dean Karnazes narrated what led
him to become one of the most accomplished endurance runners in the world,
detailing the races he ran on every continent, the countless hours he logged by
himself, and the ways he motivated himself by setting, what would seem to be
for most people, impossible goals. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>His subsequent books focused more on
specific races or goals he’d set and the lessons he’d learned from them. For
example, <i>50/50: Secrets I Learned from Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days</i>
takes readers through the journey of completing 26.2 miles of running, one
marathon in each state, for fifty consecutive days.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>In this latest book, <i>A Runner’s
High: My Life in Motion</i>, Karnazes shares with readers a side of elite
athletics rarely discussed so honestly: a career in decline and the
accompanying emotions along the journey. In fact, the book opens with a
description of a runner in distress rather than basking in the glow of another
victory: “I’m laying catawampus splayed ass-to-the-dirt in the trail—one leg
tweaked improbably beneath me—staring up at the afternoon sky seeing sparkles
of light flickering before me like circling fireflies and wondering what the
hell just happened” (p. 1). <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Over
the course of the next 23 chapters and conclusion, the runner known globally as
“Ultramarathon Man” details his training and mental preparation for returning
to the legendary Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, a race that had been
his first 100-miler back in 1994. Now, in his mid-fifties, Karnazes’s interest
in the race was rekindled. Though he would not be contending for the win, his
primary motivation was the DNF (Did Not Finish) he had at the event in 2009, a
race that, in his words, “thoroughly kicked my ass.” The result was that he
“wanted—needed—redemption” (19). <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">While
Karnazes has often been criticized for his self-promotion, he turns
introspective in his latest book, detailing the similarities between his Herculean
efforts on the running trail and life in general. For example, when describing
the challenges of navigating the difficulties of running uphill at high
elevation, he says, “These are the moments I live for. Perhaps no other sport
holds a mirror to you the way running does. Running exposes your inner self
with unvarnished brutality. How do you respond when the tide turns against you?
What do you do when the going gets tough? It’s been said that without war we do
not know if we are cowards or heroes. The runner knows this truth, for the
runner has waged war” (p. 55).<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Beyond
just being a retelling of his return to Western States, Karnazes reflects on
his running career, providing an honest glimpse at the challenges it presented
him as a father, husband, and son while also showing how it allowed him to
adapt to and overcome these obstacles. And though the primary event described is
the Western States race, he does take readers back to some of the earlier
events for which he is best known. Thankfully, he resists the urge to recycle
the same stories from previous books, instead providing fresh anecdotes for
those who have followed his career over the past three decades.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For
those familiar with Karnazes’s career, this narrative provides a different
twist on what one might expect. Instead of training to be the first to
accomplish a goal (50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, for example) or to win
a major race, like he did with the Badwater Ultramarathon in 2004, <i>A
Runner’s High</i> presents readers with a runner who is no longer the threat to
win he once was. Throughout his retelling of his return to the Western States
100-miler, Karnazes is able to put his entire running career into perspective.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">After
finishing the race, Karnazes was not finished. He kept running and ends the
book expressing the frustration many runners felt in 2020: having the desire to
run but having no races in which to compete. With Covid leading to his race
schedule being canceled, Karnazes did the only thing that seemed natural—he ran
the Miwok 100K alone. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And
while most runners won’t be able to relate to the length and duration of
Karnazes’s races, anyone who is a runner will understand his closing message:
“For me, as for every runner, runs end, running is forever . . .” (243).<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Less
about training philosophies and nutritional advice than many running books, <i>A
Runner’s High</i> presents not only runners but all readers the reminder that
the destination itself is not the goal. The process of getting there is what
matters most. <span></span></span></p>
</div><div><i></i></div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Ashland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div></div></div>