Back in March, I had picked an Intense Individual of the day. That individual was the Ultramarathon Man. The man by the name of Dean Karnazes who recently completed a 262 mile run for 75 straight hours.
Here he is with his parents and Ardy.
(His dad was a big fan of ducks, too.)
The other day he was at the Barnes and Noble for a book signing and I was compelled to go hear what he had to say. I wanted to find out this man’s story and actually be in his presence. With our books in hand, the audience and I listened to him speak about his experiences on the road. He talked about sleep running and how he would eat a whole cheesecake and pizza mid-run… you know just the normal stuff that you do during a workout. After he had spoke for about 30 minutes, he opened it up to questions from the audience.
My favorite question of the night came from a woman wearing a blue sweatshirt.
WOMAN with blue sweatshirt: Do you compete in marathons?
DEAN: Yes, I do.
WOMAN with blue sweatshirt: “How long are your average marathon times?”
DEAN: “Not that fast to tell you the truth. Sometimes they get up to 3 hours and 15 minutes. But that is usually because I warmed up prior to the run…and my warm up runs are usually around 100 miles.”
(insert moment of silence here for that one).
I thought 4 times around the field hockey field was enough of a warm up before a game back in high school!!!
Anyway, after listening to Dean speak and then talking with him and his parents afterwards, I realized that he was not only intense but a quality guy as well.
You might think that Dean has no time for anything else except the road but that is not true. Somehow he finds the time to also raise two children with his wife and run a natural foods business. (Next time you eat those peanut butter filled pretzels from Trader Joes you can thank Dean). Dean is a very personable man with a very interesting perspective on life.
While extremely dedicated and intense, he considers himself to be “just a normal guy” living a “normal” life. I beg to differ.
I mean let’s be honest, nobody is really normal.
“Being normal” for Dean means taking little vacations away from San Francisco with his family. For example, they will plan a weekend at a spa in Napa Valley to refocus, regroup, and relax….well, sort of. The difference between him and the rest of the vacation goers in the world is the mode of transportation….
The weekend arrives and the family packs in the car …sans Dean. Where is he? Oh that’s right, Dean has already left the night before on foot….so he can run through the night…for 75 miles and meet his family there.
Just a normal guy.
His book: “ULTRAMARATHON MAN CONFESSIONS OF A LATE NIGHT RUNNER” is in stores now. I really recommend you pick it up….he wrote it all while he was running.
