Dean Karnazes: 50/50, Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days
Karnazes, Dean. 50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days--and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance! (New York: Wellness Central, 2009)
A sequel of sorts to his first book, Ultramarathon Man, 50/50 is the story of Dean Karnazes during the North Face Endurance 50: running 50 marathons in 50 states on 50 consecutive days. From 17 September through 5 November 2006, Karnazes ran 26.2 miles each day--eight times as part of the official marathons held in various cities, and the remaining 42 times with a small group of volunteer runners over the official marathon courses.
Amid the usual running tribulations--Karnazes gets blisters, skips showers, and has trip-and-fall incidents just like the rest of us do--he also saw a few less common sights: encountering a gnawed-off moose leg during the Alaska marathon, and watching a fellow runner crawling across the finish line of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. His recitations of the marathons themselves (the weather, the courses, his finishing times) tends to blur into one another, but Karnazes keeps the narrative moving by discussing carbon credits for his tour bus, the second-wind phenomenon, diet, shoes, missing his family...all the things that he would probably talk about if you were running alongside him for a few hours.
As the Endurance 50 event neared its end, Karnazes noted that "[m]any people asked me what I was going to do after running fifty marathons:"
I laughingly told them the next Endurance 50 would consist of "Fifty couches, fifty pizzas, fifty beers." But that was just a joke to buy some time. In my mind I was asking myself the very same question. (p. 259)
After finishing the 50th marathon in New York City, Karnazes found his answer:
There had been one minor oversight in all the planning; No one had booked me a return flight from New York to San Francisco. So I decided to run instead. [...] For a month straight, I ran, over mountains, through cornfields, across plains, between cities both large and small. I began running as soon as I awoke in the morning, and stopped when I got tired at night. (p. 260)
After crossing the Mississippi River a few weeks later, he decided to end his run at the site of the first Endurance 50 marathon in St. Charles, Missouri:
In a strange but serendipitious way, the circle now seemed complete. San Francisco was still many miles away, but as I passed over this spot in Missouri, I felt an overwhelming sense of contentment. In a weird, almost Forrest Gump-esque moment, I stopped, turned to the group of runners who surrounded me, and said, "I miss my family. I think I'll go home now." (p. 261)
As noted in the LA Times, this aborted transcontinental running adventure was itself quite a feat: "Karnazes ran nearly 1,300 miles in 28 days. That doesn't include a hiatus in November to compete in a 24-hour race in Texas, where he ran 137.76 miles and finished fourth."
I wonder what he has planned for his next big event.
links:
Dean blogs at Ultramarathon Man
There is a documentary DVD of the Endurance 50 event
North Face is currently sponsoring a series of running events under the name Endurance Challenge