Running Ransom Road: Confronting the Past, One Marathon at a Time

For somebody who has enough self awareness to write a memoir, the author does not realize how bad he is at regulating his pace during distance runs. A half marathon is not the time to go balls-out for the first few miles and then hot dog up a hill to pass someone. Every time the author does this, he's surprised at the outcome. I found that endlessly frustrating while reading this book. He's also super patronizing to other runners, particularly in the book's afterword. He knew nothing about the woman going for a walk-run. She could have been recovering from an injury or other health issue, or just having a shitty day, and didn't need the author's judgement (whether the author "intended" it as positive or negative is irrelevant). The show more author just "assumes" she's going for her very first run, because why else would anybody ever walk while they're out running?

Stylistically, the endless italics were painful to read. And for an introspective memoir about the author's recovery from alcoholism, I feel like I was left with only a very shallow view of what happened. (I realize I'm not entitled to the depths of the author's life, but he *did* write a memoir.)

I did laugh out loud when the author called himself a flat-lander for living in Boston. Dude has obviously never spent any time in the midwest. show less

Man confronts his past through running.