Congratulations Dean Karnazes

First off I would like to say congratulations and good luck to all of the over 37,000 runners in today's ING New York City Marathon, however special praise must go out to Ultramarathon Man Dean Karnazes who will be completing his 5oth marathon in his 5oth state in the last 50 days. Those of you who do not know about Dean, you are not alone. In fact until just this past summer I, myself had no idea who he was.

During the late part of May, a friend of mine at work had been bothering me to read this book Ultramarathon Man about some guy who runs 100 mile marathons and once ran 300 straight miles. After much procrastinating and arguing with him, I mean what the hell would I want to read a book about running for anyway I finally gave in, more so he would shut up about it rather than any interest. After reluctantly taking the book from him, I handed it back to it to him 36 hours later completely finished and with a fresh new outlook on life.

Although the book does deal with running and goes through Dean's accomplishment such as training for Western States Endurance Run , as well as running a marathon to the South Pole, the book is also about overcoming adversity and finding the toughness of one's inner self. I couldn't believe how much it really changed my outlook on running and how inspired I felt after reading it, hell I almost pulled a Forest Gump and just went for a long run myself. After putting my Gump inspirations aside, I did do a little research and started running slowly but surely and I am currently at a maximum of 12 miles and hoping to run in the marathon next year.

Anyway enough about me and my running I would just like to take this chance to highly recommend this book to everyone that is reading this. I would also like to personally thank Dean for inspiring me to get in better shape and take care better care of myself, he is truly an amazing individual.