Dana Ayers is one of us. She calls herself a "back of the packer". A "casual" runner as opposed to a competitive runner. But like the rest of us, she's a runner. And she shares her experiences running a variety of races, from marathons to obstacle runs in very funny and readable book, Confessions of an Unlikely Runner: A Guide to Racing and Obstacle Courses for the Averagely Fit and Halfway Dedicated.
Well, heck, the title says just about all you need to know! Why haven't you read this book yet?
I downloaded my copy for free from Kindle. It was one of those Kindle Daily Deals. I figured, why not? And thought to myself, hmmmm, maybe this would be good for the book club.
This book was so good and laugh out loud funny that I would have gladly paid full price for it, had I known about it sooner. Dana shares all her experiences, the good, the bad, and the embarrassing. She sprinkles "pro tips" throughout the book, advice, wisdom, and motivation based on her experiences
Marathon training? She jumped right into a Team In Training for the RnR Country Music Marathon in Nashville. And asked herself, "what did I do?" She raised $3000 and ran that thing, that's what she did.
"Slower than Oprah, but right around Katie Holmes."
Motivation for so many of us. Time to beat? 4:29:20. |
Because I know that you want to know--5:29. source: nydailynews.com |
I won't lie to you. My first marathon, I so wanted to run a marathon faster than Oprah. My logic was, if Oprah can do it, I can do it, right? Except she had a whole team of people pushing her. My first marathon, I was not successful, but I did best Katie Holmes. Anyways, I did best Oprah last year and this year! Now I can sleep at night. But I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who had this goal. As a matter of fact, there were a lot of those "oh thank god it isn't just me" moments while reading this book! Dana chronicles her training and boy, does she sound like me with her logic and thoughts. There are plenty of mishaps...like the ripped yoga pants and the chafing that resulted from her quick repair of the rip...and you know you have stories to tell too!
Dana takes us through her Tough Mudder aka "paying to sign a death waiver". Which convinced me that I never want to do an obstacle race. I'm glad she did it for me. Kind of funny, because one of the bloggers that I follow, Janelle at Run with No Regrets is running a Tough Mudder this weekend and she listed one of her goals as "Don't Die". She has other less scary goals, of course, but the whole thing makes me wonder: why do we runners do this to ourselves? Dana's recap is really funny, though and really, what fun would it be if you played it safe all the time? You wouldn't be telling any good stories, would you now?
Of course, Dana participated in a Ragnar Relay. Because what runner worth her salt hasn't? Oops, that would be me. I'll live vicariously through my friends who've done Ragnar. Dana's recap is hilarious, and contains what is probably the best quote of the book:
"I thought that cheeseburger was really doing me a solid, but right now it's doing me a liquid.."Something only a runner could relate to...gotta pick the right fuel! Although when the rungries hit, you'll pretty much eat anything, right?
She also talks about cross training, which she says (again like me!) that it has to be fun to be motivating.
"Pro tip: A perk of being a non-competitive runner is that you don't have to take cross-training terrible seriously unless you want to. Just do something besides running, call it cross-training, and then call it a day."Love this! And by the way, she even tried CrossFit, where she assumed she get a tear-stained tattoo on her cheek after a successful workout. Kind of like a gang initiation, I guess...some do compare CF to a cult, so I guess she wasn't that far off...
Bottom line, Dana runs for the same reasons we do. Of course she runs for fitness, yes, but:
"It's (running) like the adult form of being rocked to sleep without actually having to go to sleep and without the awkwardness I assume would accompany asking another adult to hold me on their lap."Moral of the story: You can be a runner too. And you don't even have to put on a tutu or get electrocuted. Unless you want to.
I really enjoyed this book. I found it motivating, relatable, and funny too! You can download it from amazon for 2.99, which is still a huge bargain.
Have you read the book? What did you think? Please share your review in the linkup below. Make sure you link back to this post by grabbing the badge below! Thanks again for participating!
And don't miss next month's book! At the Chicago Marathon expo last week, I met Bart Yasso. He signed a copy of his book for me and agreed to an interview for the book club. When I asked him about his book, he was really self-deprecating about it all..."it's just a story about me and running, you know..." I've heard great things about the book and I think we will all enjoy it! Please feel free to send me any questions you want me to ask him--Yasso 800s anyone?
"My Life On The Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon" by Bart Yasso is our Book Club Book for November! |