The Road to Sparta, Dean Karnazes
The Road to Sparta, Dean Karnazes
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The Road to Sparta
Reliving the Ancient Battle and Epic Run That Inspired the World's Greatest Footrace

Author: Dean Karnazes

Narrator: Robert Fass

Unabridged: 8 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/25/2016

Synopsis

The Road to Sparta is the story of the 153-mile run from Athens to Sparta that inspired the marathon and saved democracy, as told—and experienced—by ultramarathoner and New York Times bestselling author Dean Karnazes.

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides ran for thirty-six hours straight from Athens to Sparta to seek help in defending Athens from a Persian invasion in the Battle of Marathon. In doing so, he saved the development of Western civilization and inspired the birth of the marathon as we know it. Even now, some 2,500 years later, that run stands enduringly as one of greatest physical accomplishments in the history of mankind.

Karnazes personally honors Pheidippides and his own Greek heritage by recreating this ancient journey in modern times. Karnazes even abstains from contemporary endurance nutrition like sports drinks and energy gels and only eats what was available in 490 BCE, such as figs, olives, and cured meats. Through vivid details and internal dialogs, The Road to Sparta offers a rare glimpse into the mindset and motivation of an extreme athlete during his most difficult and personal challenge to date.

About Dean Karnazes

Dean Karnazes, a New York Times bestselling author and an internationally recognized endurance athlete, was named by Time magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World. He has competed on all seven continents, including a 350-mile run, a 135-mile ultramarathon across Death Valley, and a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. In 2006, he ran 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 consecutive days, finishing with the NYC Marathon, which he completed in three hours flat. He has written for Runner's World and Men's Health and lives in Marin County, California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brent on September 13, 2016

I won this book through GoodReads First Read program. I am not a runner and had never heard of ultra marathons but I really enjoyed this book by Dean Karnazes-who is kind of a rock star of marathoners. Dean will get you in the running mood. He gives you his background and how he got to be a marathon r......more

Goodreads review by Amir on June 03, 2017

As good as the author's intentions were here, the bottom line is he can't write. Karnazes starts out trying to retrace the route Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta, then he mentions an earlier scholarly expedition that attempted to do the same, and then he runs the Spartathlon. It's never clear......more

Goodreads review by Kim on July 11, 2017

As a reader of Herodotus and Thucydides I was looking forward to new insights on Greek history. This book brought a small dash of that and a whole lot of purple prose regarding running and the glories of the author's Greek heritage. The book centers around the accomplishments of Pheidippides, the ren......more

Goodreads review by Steve on August 14, 2018

I'll file this under not for everyone, but worth reading if you're (or have been) a distance runner (particularly someone who has ... at some point ... logged many miles) or genuinely interested in ancient Greek history. Karnazes runs, and runs, and runs ... a lot ... and covers a lot a ground. He's......more

Goodreads review by Rohan on August 23, 2017

Enjoyed learning about Pheidippides and his role in the battle of Marathon. As an ultrarunner, I feel the description of Dean's Spartathlon was a long boring stretch and tedious to wrap up. I appreciate the effort he put in articulating his journey, but the true experience of running an ultra is som......more

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