Mindset – The World’s Toughest, Deadliest, and Hardest Challenges – BionicOldGuy

This is an entertaining book by Helen Summer about some of the toughest marathons in the world. It is a combination of amazing descriptions of courses and first-person accounts by the people who have run them. Most of the events are super fast, but there are some other adventures like kayaking and triathlons. They cover a range from the world’s highest race, La Ultra (“High”) in the Himalayas in India, to some of the coldest regions, such as the Yukon Arctic Ultra in Canada. My favorite line was the description of runners from China who read a report about a desert race in Jordan and were inspired to run the race themselves. As the author points out, “reading can be a dangerous sport.” My wife would agree, which is why she usually tries to take books like this away from me. But I enjoy it because it makes my adventures seem rational by comparison. It’s also safe because I can’t run after two hip replacements. Now, if you had been reading this 20 or so years ago when I still had cartilage in my hips, it could have been serious.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its descriptions of an amazing variety of adventures.