My Year of Running Dangerously
by Tom ForemanGenres: Biography & Autobiography, Running & Jogging
Published on October 6th 2015
Pages: 280
As a journalist whose career spans three decades, CNN correspondent Tom Foreman has reported from the heart of war zones, riots, and natural disasters. He has interviewed serial killers and been in the line of fire. But the most terrifying moment of his life didn't occur on the job--it occurred at home, when his 18-year old daughter asked, "How would you feel about running a marathon with me?"
At the time, Foreman was approaching 51 years old, and his last marathon was almost 30 years behind him. The race was just sixteen weeks away, but Foreman reluctantly agreed. Training with his daughter, who had just started college, would be a great bonding experience, albeit a long and painful one.
My Year of Running Dangerously is Foreman's journey through four half-marathons, three marathons, and one 55-mile race. What started as an innocent request from his daughter quickly turned into a rekindled passion for long-distance running--for the training, the camaraderie, the defeats, and the victories. Told with honesty and humor, Foreman's account captures the universal fears of aging and failure alongside the hard-won moments of triumph, tenacity, and going further than you ever thought possible.
Tom Foreman had been a good cross country runner in high school. He’d been good enough that he could win without training or taking it seriously. Over the years he had done some running but not seriously. So when his daughter wanted him to train with her to run a marathon, it was a big commitment for him.
Once that first marathon was done he kept running. Soon he found himself investigating the world of ultrarunning or running distances longer than 26 miles. He starts to train for a 50 mile trail race – spending hours a day running in spite of his busy schedule.
I hate running but I love reading books about running. It is weird.
I really don’t like reading books that focus on father-daughter relationships so I hesitated about picking this one up but my interest in the ultrarunning world won out. Besides, this is one of those books about a person doing something new for a year and I just can’t resist those.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that he had a history of being a runner before this started. It wasn’t like running a marathon was a completely foreign idea to him.
This is a good introduction to the weird world of people who run long distance and what it takes to be a part of it.
