Monday, January 14, 2013

Podcast - Mile 51 - Running Wild Review

Yet another podcast where I do yet another book review. I know I'll have at least one more in the future so you'll just need to suffer through it. Or skip it.

This particular review is about Running Wild by John Annerino. Annerino spends several days in the Arizona desert climbing rocks and running canyons. The main idea of the book comes across as a guy that's had some bad crap happen to him (divorce and a busted ankle being the big ones) and he decides to go out and find himself. Along the lines of Ruess, McCandless, and countless others that have endured hardships and just want to get away, Annerino does a decent job of writing about his journey. Most of the action is around a couple of climbs and a few long runs with some little nuggets of wisdom and narcissism stuffed in.

Most impressive to me is his ability to run these long distances in the desert with barely any water and still survive. Maybe it's because I drink like a horse or maybe it's because I'm cautious but he did some crazy, stupid stuff. To consider running so far with so little is beyond my imagination. I suffered for two miles in the heat this summer and was extremely nervous.

Most entertaining to me was the correlation between Annerino in the early 1980s and some ultra runners of today. Elite runners that have crossed over from (or into) mountain climbing.

Anyway, here's the link to the Podbean episode or you can download directly here.

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