Ben Bell

What a book. If you’re a fan of Dean’s other books you’ll know his story. This encapsulates a shorter period of time and really shows how relationships between families can effected, strengthened, stressed, weakened and eventually made stronger by running (or any group activity that gets people on adventures). As a father of son his twenties who I rarely hear from and having a dad who passed away years ago due to alcoholism I wish I had the family unit that Dean, that being said the story shows that even the strongest realtionships have ups and downs. Anyone who runs knows how stressed you can get in competition or when your body’s at the limit, this book shows that even Dean’s human and it can be hard to deal with people and their requests for photos and more pressingly your time. The running is inspiring as always, Dean handles the (very small) physical limitations that age puts on you with class, being okay with not being who you were twenty years ago shows a strength that’s rarely mentioned, as most athletes tend to just disappear and stop. I know it’s not a competition but most ultra there books these days lack any personality, Dean touches on it with his sons generation and their lack of emotion at times. The same thing can be said for many of the ultra books out there, they feel forced, like the subjects of the books only do it to grab money, not because they want to tell their story. Sport and life is about people, about the drama of life. It’s nice to read a book that has it all in abundance. Dean and his family are good people, proper decent folk who it feels were lacking in the world today. It’s nice to read positive and inspiring book about interesting people. I hope there’s more to come.