Just Finished Reading A Runner's High by Dean Karnazes

A Runner's High, out just this past April, is the second Dean Karnazes book I've read among his several over the last fifteen years.  Back around 2010 I read (and reread) his excellent debut book on running titled Ultramarathon Man.  Karnazes has been an avid ultra-distance runner...not at the top of his sport in terms of finishing times but with a long, impressive record of very long runs.  But for me, never interested in running longer distances than marathons, his perspective on the sport...or maybe better to call it a lifestyle...resonated deeply with me enough back than to buy it on my Kindle.  "Karno", as he is often called by his buddies, has a very compelling and personal writing style.  He doesn't treat distance running by itself, but rather integrates it with his own personal life story and relationships.  There's a kind of duality here: on one hand, for him running is supremely a solitary endeavor befitting his own introverted nature...on the other his recollections are full of meaningful and sometimes life-changing interactions with others.  His first book delves into his childhood and earlier running years, while A Runner's High is more about recent years and how aging (Karnazes is now 59) has forced him into a reassessment of this activity, emphasizing now the experience more than ever over his previous competitive nature and goals.  He revisits the Western States 100, an exclusive race in mountainous California (limit: 369 entrants drawn by lottery), his initial experience running it recounted in Ultramarathon Man.  Coming back after some intervening years, he realizes, once upon the trail, that he is no longer in shape to finish it and has to struggle...along with some "tough" love from his son Nicholas and his parents and wife...to get back into the race after he had decided to drop out.  And family is a very big deal in A Runner's High.  I haven't read Dean Karnazes' other books on running and don't know how personal his writing is in them, but I enjoyed in the two books I've read so far in how he describes his philosophy of running and his experiences...not so much all the relational stuff.  One other thing about Karnazes and his running: a few years ago, an acquaintance of mine who was (and I believe still is) involved in marathon running would make a big deal about how during a race he never stopped running to walk as others do, many by deliberate design...as if this somehow made his own performance more legitimate.  Well, in the much longer races Karnazes engaged in, NOBODY ever ran the entire distance.  There would be aid stations interspersed along the route and racers would be required at times to stop and undergo inspections from a stationed medical authority to determine their fitness to continue.  There would be seats to sit in and rest...for as long as they wanted...and food and refreshments, as well as opportunities to change shoes and socks.  The runners usually had friends and/or family at some of these outposts ready to aid them during their breaks.  And during many of these events, the terrain at different times was either so steep-ascending, steep-descending, too rocky or muddy or involved crossing water...that running through these stages would be impossible and walking, climbing, and sometimes even crawling were the necessary actions...I don't think that dude would be sticking to his conceit very long about "running the whole race" were he to try out one of these longer ones.  As I mentioned earlier, I have no plans to run any ultramarathon races, although they've become much more widespread in recent years and quite a few are held each year in my state of Florida.  No, half-marathons are pretty much my upper limit now in distance.  And I have every intention of continuing to run them long after I turn 65 next month...