PRINT-Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes

Greta got me this book for my birthday after I had expressed an interest in reading it. I devoured it in two days. Ultramarathon Man is an outstanding book. I highly recommend it.

I have taken some flak here from ultrarunners, and I want to say that my opinion of their activities is unchanged. I think ultrarunning is stupid. It is a stunt not a sport. But this does not change the fact that Dean Karnazes, aka "Karno," has written an excellent book here. His tale is inspiring, and you can't help but like the guy.

People criticize Karnazes because he is a rockstar in an otherwise obscure sport. The man gets more press than bona fide champions like Scott Jurek and Pam Reed. Clearly, the man knows how to market himself, and you might be lead to believe that Karno is full of himself. But I didn't get that from the book. At points, you think Karno is bragging about his exploits, but he is also self-deprecating. Basically, he states the facts. He tells you about his strengths and his weaknesses. And he admits that a lot of the stuff he does is just plain nuts.

Karno begins the book talking about his early life, his family, and his involvement in high school running. After a falling out with his coach, Karno left running and did not return to it until he had a midlife crisis on his 30th birthday when he ran inebriated for 30 miles in his underwear and some crapped out tennis shoes. Wanting to do something beyond the corporate grind, Karno became a runner and then an ultrarunner.

I admire runners, and I aspire to become one myself. I do not admire ultrarunners. They are fools. When you read about people having renal failure in a race or having to weigh themselves at checkpoints so they don't die, you realize these events aren't a test of endurance but of sanity. I'm sorry, but I don't want to push myself into the realm of kidney failure and death. Maybe I'm a pussy, but I don't see this stuff as being healthy. It takes discipline and determination to train for and race in a marathon. The marathon is tough. An ultramarathon is just fucked up stupid.

Karno does stuff like race Badwater where he had to run the white line on the road to keep his shoes from melting or running a marathon at the South Pole where he put warmers in his shoes to keep his feet from turning into blocks of ice. I'm tempted to call these exploits horizontal mountain climbing because that is the only activity I can liken this craziness to.

I know I will catch shit from the ultranuts over this, but my criticism is based in Aristotle's Golden Mean. I think being a fat bloated couch potato is bad. Eventually, such a lifestyle leads to bad joints, diabetes, kidney failure, and blindness. But ultrarunning isn't much better. It is equally as unhealthy. Ultraunners eat garbage and push themselves to the opposite extreme resulting sometimes in kidney failure and death. Karnazes is an outstanding specimen of health and fitness, but I think we would view him very differently with brain damage, missing digits from frostbite, or spending his days on dialysis.

The people I admire are folks like my girlfriend Greta who gets up each morning and does her miles and simply wants to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I admire Karnazes for the same reasons. I admire the guy for making a change in his life and living a disciplined life. I admire people who run each day or make the proper food choices at mealtime or what have you. I admire people who want to run a fast race, but who don't push themselves into injury.

Aristotle said that excellence was not a singular act but a habit. We are what we repeatedly do. For Karnazes, glory lies in a single spectacle like running to the South Pole. But I think the real glory is living each day and every day putting in the miles rain or shine. This is what a race is about. It verifies not that you have the guts to finish an eyepopping distance, but that you had the discipline to prepare each day. A race is a test of excellence. I think Karno misses that.

Ultraunning is inherently Platonic. It denies the world. It is monastic and masochistic. Runners care for their bodies. Ultrarunners punish their bodies. Runners embrace the flesh. Ultrarunners deny it. This is why runners hate a 70 degree day on raceday while ultrarunners embrace the 120+ degree temperatures of Death Valley for the Badwater Ultramarathon.

I fall on the side of Aristotle. This is why I think ultrarunning is stupid. Basically, Plato believed in the perfect world of the Forms and the material world was just a shadow of this world of perfection. This influence lead to the world and flesh denying aspects of Roman Catholic theology and practice. This is why you have the veneration of the Virgin, the practice of celibacy, monasticism, and masochistic acts of purification involving hair shirts and self-flagellation. Ultrarunning taps into this world of Platonic dualism with an emphasis on discovering something about yourself or the world or life as you reach the outer edge of utter self-denial. Naturally, mere mortals such as myself are denied this "knowledge" because we are flesh obsessed hedonists. I'm sorry, but I think Plato, Catholicism, and ultrarunning are fucked up in their worldviews. And it is the same worldview.

My Aristotelian worldview emphasizes running as an activity that promotes health and vitality and an enjoyment of the world. It feels good to be in shape, and fitness enables you to do a lot of things you couldn't do. This is why we call it "fitness." You are fit for a certain activity. Naturally, ultrafreaks and Platonists will decry the softness of this approach, but Aristotelians are not soft. They just refuse to be stupid. And they race to put up a good time not find salvation or enligthenment or Krishna consciousness or self-discovery or what have you.

I doubt I have settled this debate, but I can tell you that Ultramarathon Man is an excellent book. Karnazes is a fascinating and very likable individual even if I think he is a bit nutty. I really enjoyed reading about him, and I'd love to meet the guy.

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