Karnazes is an ultramarathoner: a member of a small, elite, hard-core group of extreme athletes who race 100 miles and longer. They can run forty-eight hours and more without sleep. They can scale mountains, in brutally hot or cold weather, pushing their bodies, minds, and spirits well past what seems humanly possible. Karnazes has run 226. 2 miles nonstop; he has completed the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon across Death Valley in 130-degree weather; and he is the only person to complete a marathon to the South Pole in running shoes. With an insight and candor rarely seen in sports memoirs, he reveals how he merges the solitary, manic, self-absorbed life of hard-core ultrarunning with a full-time job, a wife, and two children, and how running has made him who he is today. --From publisher description.