You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg

You may or may not know that I am planning to run a half-marathon next Sunday in Newport, RI. I’ve been training since May and am fairly confident I will be able to finish in good time. (Although yesterday my foot started hurting a lot after running 5 miles…I’ll have to take it easy until race day.) Anyways, as some last minute motivation, I thought I would read a book about marathons. I ended up selecting You are an Ironman by Jacques Steinberg.

The story chronicles six people through their journey training and partaking in the actual Ironman competition. For those who don’t know what an Ironman is, it’s a 2.4 mile swim in open water, a 112 mile bike ride, and then a 26.2 mile run. All of it must be done in 17 hours. (Oh and as a bonus, the Ironman World Championship was held yesterday in Hawaii.) The people in the story are average Americans. They come from difficult financial situations, they were never a jock, nor are they professional athletes. The author spells out in the first few pages that this is not a training manual. He does not offer any tips and really does not go into too much detail as to what the participants are doing on a day to day basis (he does offer resources if you are interested in that sorta thing). Instead he talks about everyday struggles leading up to the Ironman.

Even though there were six main characters, I found I was constantly confused as to whose history was whose, who was training where. Each chapter will give updates on a few of the competitors. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention enough. Still, I appreciated what each person went through. And I thought the ending was one of the most suspenseful that I’ve read in a while. The final pages discuss how each person faired in the Ironman event. This book is exactly what I was looking for just before my half-marathon. Wish me luck!

My rating for You are an Ironman: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. Huge (absolutely huge) surprise for next week. It will be awesome!!