“The Road To Sparta” (2016©) — book review | |
Today’s book review is for “The Road To Sparta” written by Dean Karnazes. Karnazes may not be the “Dean” of ultramarathon runners, but he is certainly one of the sports most famous names and faces. Karnazes lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I also was raised and currently live), and, from his writing, appears to have totally adopted the ethos of being from Northern California. Clean air, physical fitness, sometimes single minded pursuit of one’s goals, etc. | |
The book is another semi-autobiographical book about Karnazes. His other book (which is reviewed here) is titled: “Ultramarathon Man“, and deals more with his various runs – particularly the Western States One-Hundred. This book is about his being descended from Greek immigrants and him getting back in touch with his roots in his native country via participation in an ultra-run called “The Spartathlon.” This run recreates the run which Pheidippides made from Athens to Sparta to ask the Spartans to help the Athenians resist the Persian invasion of Greece at the beach of Marathon. Not to spoil the story (as it is ancient history), Pheidippides ran about 150 miles to carry the message (request). He then ran a similar distance to carry the reply (“Yeah, we’ll come, but not for a few days”). And then, … wait for it… he ran from the battlefield (Marathon) to Athens (about 26 miles) to carry news of the victory. And then he died. | |
The race isn’t so spectacular. Karnazes “only” has to run the initial portion (Athens to Sparta). Oh, yeah. You have to run the race in a “similar” time span to that of Pheidippides – 36 hours. | |
If you are a serious distance runner, much of the book will seem self-affirming as you will probably relate to the action and feelings of a ultra-distance runner. If you are not a “serious” runner (or athlete), you may still relate, but you’ll probably also find Karnazes’ descriptions of the Greek countryside a bit flowery. Make that extremely flowery. Almost (but not quite) off-puttingly so. Almost… On the other hand, if you are just an average reader, you may really like all the verbiage. I was kind of in the middle. Parts of the book made we want to strap on some shoes and go out for a jog. Others left me feeling like he had been assigned a set number of words to get the book published and he was going to reach that number with the same determination it takes to run an ultra. | |
Final recommendation: strong. I enjoyed the history. I enjoyed most of the descriptions, particularly when he was talking about the people out in the Greek countryside. And I enjoyed the re-telling of the actual Spartathlon he ran in. Ultimately, a good running book should make you want to lace up and hit the pavement. As mentioned above, this book did that for me. I picked the book up at Half-Price Books off the $3 rack. A steal at that price. I’ve already used a couple of quotes on my blog and I’ve got about another dozen or so hi-lighted for use in the future. | |
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On This Day In: | |
2017 | Today Is Not Lost |
Day 8 | |
2016 | Paying Attention |
2015 | An Awful Ordeal |
2014 | What Are You Doing? |
2013 | Lives > 1 |
2012 | Strange To All The World |
2011 | Unnecessary Stagefright |
Posts Tagged ‘Dean Karnazes’
Running On History
Posted in 2018 Book Review, Book Review, History, Reading, Reviews, Running, WS100, tagged 2018 Book Review, Athens, Dean Karnazes, Greece, History, Marathon, Persians, Pheidippides, Running, San Francisco Bay Area, Sparta, Strong Book Recommendation, The Road To Sparta -- book review, The Spartathlon, Ultramarathon Man, Ultramarathon Runs, WS100 on September 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Change Happens
Posted in Quotes, tagged Change, Dean Karnazes, Quotes, The Road To Sparta on August 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The notion that change takes time is fanciful. Change happens in a flash. The underlying magma may have been heating for a while, but when a well-timed counterforce disrupts the system, change erupts instantaneously, like a volcano, and suddenly nothing is ever the same. | |
— Dean Karnazes | |
From his book: “The Road To Sparta“ | |
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On This Day In: | |
2017 | Still Removing Bricks |
2016 | Namaste |
2015 | Still Learning |
2014 | Dark Processes |
2013 | To The Last Link |
2012 | Slept In Again |
2011 | Home Again, Naturally |
2009 | Thoughts after a long day of OT… |
To Excel At Your Craft
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Dean Karnazes, Happiness, Life Balance, Philosophy, Quotes, The Road To Sparta on August 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »
People speak of finding balance. To me, that’s a misplaced ambition. If you have balance, you do everything okay. But to excel at your craft, you need obsessive, unbridled fanaticism. Not only does excellence require such commitment, it demands it. A life worth living is frenetic, disjointed, breakneck, and quite fantastic. Balance doesn’t lead to happiness – impassioned dedication to one’s life purpose does. | |
— Dean Karnazes | |
From his book: “The Road To Sparta“ | |
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On This Day In: | |
2017 | Like When You Can Order Others To Fight For You |
2016 | Holding Fast |
2015 | Alms Or Balms |
2014 | A Day At The Beach |
2013 | Pillows |
Steppin’ | |
2012 | Invincible Summer |
2011 | Being Objective |
2010 | First Things First… |
Northwest Passages – Intro | |
Northwest Passages – Day One | |
Northwest Passages – Poetry | |
Northwest Passages – Evening One | |
Northwest Passages – Morning Two | |
Bec’s Gone Again…
Posted in Faith Family and Friends, General Comments, Reading, Sports, Work, WS100, tagged Books, Dean Karnazes, Family, Recommended Reading, Sports, Ultramarathon Man, Ultramarathon Man - book review, Western States 100, Work, WS100 on January 4, 2010| 2 Comments »
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