tri related but have 40+ hours of travelling in next 10 days so want reading material along the lines of…
Running with Buffs
Gold in the H2O
Touching the Void
Would really like to read something about the Raid G, Ec Challenge or an adventure race, anyone read anything about Badwater caled To the Edge…
Something inspiring like TTV.
Thanks
Andrew
I’ll throw in a recommendation for the Marla Runyan bio.
OK, I read a lot. Here are some suggestions in the adventure/inspirational realm to get you started.
“The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” by Slavomir Rawicz
Excellent book recommended by a guy I met in Kona. In fact, he mailed me his copy when he finished it. It’s about a Polish Army guy who escapes with a group of prisoners in 1940-41 from a Russian prison/work camp in Siberia and then their trek thousands of miles to freedom. Totally engrossing.
“To The Edge” by Kirk Johnson
The book by the NY Time writer who takes up running after the suicide of his brother and eventually decides he has to run Badwater. Pretty interesting, especially the account of the race itself and the people who run it.
“Touching My Father’s Soul: A Journey to the Top of Everest” by Jamling Tenzing Norgay
Book by the son of Tenzing Norgay, one of the two men who were first to the top of Mt. Everest. A really good book, both about climbing (he was a member of the team who filmed the IMAX movie “EVEREST”), but also about being the son of a very famous person, a raised Buddhist who went to college in the US and therefore lives in both worlds, and the search to find himself and the connection with his father. I found the parts about the Sherpa’s spirituality and Buddhism very interesting.
“Seven Years in Tibet” by Heinrich Harrer. (Note: Never saw the movie. I very rarely go to movies and even rarer, rent them or watch them on TV.)
I really liked this book a lot. Harrer was an Austrian who was put into a POW camp in India during WWII by the British. He and a few others escaped and eventually he and a buddy escaped to Tibet where they lived for seven years. The story of the escape and trek from India into Tibet was just incredible–the physical hardships they had to endure and then all the thinking on their feet to outwit the government and be allowed to stay. He eventually became a tutor to the Dalai Lama, when the DL was 14 years old.
“Ultimate High–My Everest Odyssey” by Goran Kropp. Kropp rode his
bike 7,000 miles to/from Stockholm to Mt. Everest, attempted the
summit and rode back. (Kropp was killed climbing this past year.)
“No Mean Feat” by Mark Inglis
Impulse purchase in NZ. Great book! About a Kiwi who, with his climbing/work partner), was stranded on Mt. Cook for 13 nights. They were both mountain guides in the national park there and they were rescued, but both had to have both lower legs amputated. The book goes into the aftermath and rehabilitation, and then up to the present (just published this year). Inglis has become an excellent paraolympic athlete and wine maker, who in 2003 is off to a new adventure. Quite the inspirational book, but not sure you can find it in the US.
“Can You Make A Living Doing That?” by Brad Kearns. It’s about BK’s life as one of the early pro triathletes where there were no sponsors and you had to make up the rules as you went along. A quick read and highly entertaining as I remember all the names he talks about from the early days.
If you want to read the ultimate endurance book of all time try
“The Worst Journey in the World” by Apsley Cherry Garrad. Makes IM look like a walk in the park. It’s about Scott’s expedition to the South Pole 1911-12. The “Worst Journey” was a trek to obtain some Emperor Penguin eggs in the dead of the Antarctic winter. Camping in -70F.