Joe Drake

It's hard not to cheer the author on as he commits to running the 6 World Marathon Major marathons after a Parkinson's diagnosis (and a couple more, to get qualifying times). I liked his race recaps, although at times they were very name-heavy (I imagine he met lots of new buddies, and also wanted to thank friends and supporters). I laughed out loud when the author decided it would be easy to take the T from Logan to Copley Square. I moved away from Boston 10 years ago, and taking the T show more (specifically to/from the airport) is still a recurring nightmare of mine.

I also thought it was humorous that the author had minimal or no experience with the race chips that you tie into your shoe laces. I've been running for long enough that I had to actually mail a postcard and check in to register for my earliest races, and I'm much younger than the author. Those shoe chips used to be the only way for chip times, prior to the now-ubiquitous RFID. I've also run some races where a guy with a stopwatch yells out times to a buddy holding a clipboard. (I was impressed with how accurate that method was.)

So the book was relatable, and made me nod and smile and laugh in appreciation with what the author went through.

The author gave information about his preferred training method and fueling / hydration strategy. Beginner runners should not take that information as gospel. The author recommends drinking 3/4 L of water every 60 minutes of exercise. If I did that, I'd have to swim through my runs. I eat and drink very little up to the half marathon distance (and I know what works for me through loads of experience), so beginners should experiment and practice and see what works for them.

I wish the author would have, at one point, acknowledged the enormous amount of money his undertaking cost. The book reads like "if I can do this: anyone can!", but in fact, runners without deep pockets cannot. Charity running Boston is about $7,500. You either need to know a lot of people who can donate, a few rich people who can donate, or be OK with coughing up your own 7.5k come race time. (I lived in Boston 5 years and was allowed to volunteer at the marathon, but never run it. Too slow, too poor. I'm obviously still a little sore about that. Even NYC lets their committed runners and volunteers run the NYC marathon. Not Boston.) That's just one of the author's 6 races, or 5 if you don't count the Seattle virtual race. Then there's race fees, airfare, the fees he paid for a marathon tour company, hotels, and the carbon offsets the author purchased. This is totally not to discount the author's efforts, which were really great, but just to bring to light something I couldn't stop thinking about while I read the book. show less

Joe Drake delivers inspiration not only as a Parkinson's hero, but to give readers more courage
to rise above the daily battles with health that they are facing.

For those of us who have too soon lost a dynamic human to Parkinson's,
for those who keep praying for Michael J. Fox and his astounding Foundation,
and for the challenges for those seeking treatment while waiting for a cure,
we salute this book and the indelible image of "...that invisible hand...."

Great cover!

Sadly, one Star off of 5 show more for his support of animal testing.

This is a surprise for an Engineer since he well knows that computers
can be trained to replace the horrors of animal experimentation. show less

Run With It is a memoir of Joe Drake's attempt to complete all six of the world's major marathons within a year. It is, at best, a difficult feat to achieve. In Joe's case, it was more difficult because the COVID pandemic placed limits on how many people could participate in some races and required rescheduling some races to occur on successive days. And, on top of all that, Joe has Parkinson's disease. To say I am in awe of what he accomplished cannot begin to express my feelings after show more reading Run With It. This book has a little bit of everything, including discussions of what Parkinson's is and what is effective in countering its effects on the body, how to train for long races, and how to prepare for and then bounce back from the effects of those races. What I wish this book had more of was Joe's feelings. He's very honest about how his body felt during and after the races, but I would have enjoyed hearing more about how he felt emotionally after each individual race and then when he had accomplished his goal. He has brought attention to Parkinson's individually and through an affiliation with Team Fox (fundraisers for the Michael J. Fox Foundation), and his experience proves that Parkinson's is not a death sentence, nor can it stop anyone from achieving the physical and emotional goals they set for themselves. I would have enjoyed reading more about how that affected him and his family. Bravo, Joe! I hope that you continue achieving your goals, and that as you do so, you inspire and educate others. show less

This was a fun and inspiring story of a man diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) in his late 50's who decides to run 6 major marathons in 1 year as his way of confronting his diagnosis head on by choosing this very difficult challenge. He decides he wants his achievements to define him as long as possible and not his Parkinson's diagnosis. It is certainly a bonus that he discovers very vigorous exercise has been proven to lessen the effects of this disease.

Joe Drake is a man who knows show more how to accept a challenge and carefully plan for it, and it turns out he is also adept at taking us along for the journey.. We not only travel with him to Berlin, London, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and NYC through this book, but we also learn about this devastating disease,and its present treatments. He also includes his running training plan, and does not shy away from describing when all his careful planning goes awry. We can only hope his symptoms allow him the option of planning another inspiring challenge. show less