Book Review x 2

On the plane to Vegas, I managed to get over half way through a new book and some trouble adjusting to the time change allowed me to also finish said book.  It was a pretty easy read and an interesting story.  The book was "The Long Run".  It is the story of Matt Long - a NYC firefighter that while riding his bike to work during a transportation worker strike was hit by a 20 ton bus and severely injured when impaled by his bike's seat.  Given about a 5% chance of surviving with incredible blood loss, his family was prepared to lose one of their many members that night just before Christmas. 

But Matt fought and fought to recover.  With very skilled doctors and tons of committed family and friends, he managed over the next few years to go from near death to returning to the sport of running (albeit never again as fast) and triathlon.  I liked this book for much of the same reasons I liked the other books I've read about relatively regular guys who've been through medical trauma and found their way through sport.  I did not particularly enjoy some of the graphic references to his injuries, but I do understand they were necessary to fully understand all of the barriers to his recovery.  But overall, the book reminds us that with incredible determination and some grace from the good Lord above, the human body and spirit can be incredibly resilient.

I also recently finished "You Are an Ironman".  I had seen some other reviews of this book that were less than favorable and had put it off, but I actually enjoyed this book for the most part.  It basically follows a handful of first time age groupers going after those infamous words of Mike Reilly at IMAZ.  From how and why they signed up through their challenges throughout training and their experiences on race day.  It is not a training book.  It is simply a story that exemplifies why and how many of us get hooked on this crazy sport.  While I understood why the author did this, I found it sometimes hard to follow as he jumped between characters.  It was reading multiple story lines along the same time line, but often I had to stop and think about which character he was talking about and their individual story within the larger story.  I found each story inspirational in its own way - much like I find many of the stories I read on blogs.  I can see how it would be more inspirational to someone who hasn't been on the IM journey though.

I got both of these books from the library in Columbia.  I was not sent these books to review.  Just sharing my experiences with them.