You are here: Home / Ultras / Dean Karnazes

Dean Karnazes

July 14, 2009 By 8 Comments

Dean Karnazes 167x108 custom Dean Karnazes

Dean Kar­nazes

When it comes to Dean Kar­nazes, there’s a lot of con­tro­versy. Peo­ple tend to either love him, or hate him. And the line seems to exist between those who call them­selves real ultra­run­ners, and those who aren’t famil­iar with any ultra­run­ners except Dean. While the biggest thing to admire about Dean is prob­a­bly his PR machine (he used to be a Mar­ket­ing Exec­u­tive, after all), he did win Bad­wa­ter in 2004. That’s no easy race to win, either. Yet there are also many, many run­ners who beaten him in ultra­ma­rathons around the world. So, does he really deserve the self-given title of the ultra­ma­rathon man? You can decide

Dean Kar­nazes was pro­claimed, “The fittest man in the world” by Men’s Fit­ness mag­a­zine. An inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized endurance ath­lete and best­selling author, Dean Kar­nazes has pushed his body and mind to incon­ceiv­able lim­its. Among his many accom­plish­ments, he has run 350 con­tin­u­ous miles, fore­go­ing sleep for three nights. He’s run across Death Val­ley in 120 degree tem­per­a­tures, and he’s run a marathon to the South Pole in neg­a­tive 40 degrees. On ten dif­fer­ent occa­sions, he’s run a 200-mile relay race solo, rac­ing along­side teams of twelve. Dean Kar­nazes has swum across the San Fran­cisco Bay, scaled Half Dome in Yosemite, mountain-biked for 24-hours straight, surfed the gigan­tic waves off the coast of Hawaii, and is an accom­plished wind­surfer. Dean Kar­nazes has won the Ver­mont Trail 100 Mile Endurance Run, holds eleven West­ern States 100-Mile Endurance Run Sil­ver Buckle’s, has raced and com­peted across the globe, and has won the world’s tough­est footrace, the Bad­wa­ter Ultra­ma­rathon, run­ning 135 miles across Death Val­ley in the mid­dle of sum­mer. His most recent endeavor was run­ning 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 con­sec­u­tive days, fin­ish­ing with the NYC Marathon, which he ran in three hours flat. His first book, Ultra­ma­rathon Man: Con­fes­sions of an All-Night Run­ner, is a National Best­seller, and was the #7 best­selling sports book world­wide in 2005. Ultra­ma­rathon Man is cur­rently in print in eleven lan­guages and avail­able in audio format.

The the­atri­cal trailer for Ultra­Ma­rathon Man: 50 Marathons • 50 States • 50 Days:

Dean’s Blog

pixel Dean Karnazes
Be Socia­ble, Share!
  • more Dean Karnazes
Filed Under: Ultras Tagged With: , , ,
  • http://lifekeepsonrunning.blogspot.com/ Thomas Tan

    Dean K is our ultra­ma­rathon man because he is con­sid­ered the ambas­sador for the emerg­ing mod­ern every­day ultra­run­ners. He may not be the best there is, and in fact, there are many bet­ter elite ultra­run­ners out there in terms of win­nings. But who says the ultra­ma­rathon man title must go to the best ultrarunners?

    What sep­a­rates Dean from other ultra­run­ners (beside his age; he’s reach­ing 50) is his abil­ity to reach out, touch and inspire so mil­lions to just go out and run. The inter­na­tional suc­cess of his book and the num­ber of his fol­low­ers speak to that. I was inspired to attempt ultras when I first read his book. Scott Jurek’s book and those by oth­ers, along with their long list of acco­lades, did Jack for me because I sim­ply can’t relate to them!

    Dean’s run­ning exploits is impres­sive when you con­sider his age and his com­mit­ment to his char­i­ties and most impor­tantly his own fam­ily. I met his fam­ily dur­ing his stop in Seat­tle for his 50–50-50, and let me tell you, they’re just the most won­der­ful and down-to-earth folks one can come across. You can feel that they’re a fam­ily, a strong unit that sup­ports each other.

    I can’t relate to ultra­run­ners like Anton K or Erik S, who are young and sin­gle with­out a care in the world. All they do is run, eat, sleep and run! But I can relate to Dean.

    And, that is why Dean K is the Ultra­ma­rathon Man in my book.

  • http://lifekeepsonrunning.blogspot.com/ Thomas Tan

    Dean K is our ultra­ma­rathon man because he is con­sid­ered the ambas­sador for the emerg­ing mod­ern every­day ultra­run­ners. He may not be the best there is, and in fact, there are many bet­ter elite ultra­run­ners out there in terms of win­nings. But who says the ultra­ma­rathon man title must go to the best ultrarunners?

    What sep­a­rates Dean from other ultra­run­ners (beside his age; he’s reach­ing 50) is his abil­ity to reach out, touch and inspire so mil­lions to just go out and run. The inter­na­tional suc­cess of his book and the num­ber of his fol­low­ers speak to that. I was inspired to attempt ultras when I first read his book. Scott Jurek’s book and those by oth­ers, along with their long list of acco­lades, did Jack for me because I sim­ply can’t relate to them!

    Dean’s run­ning exploits is impres­sive when you con­sider his age and his com­mit­ment to his char­i­ties and most impor­tantly his own fam­ily. I met his fam­ily dur­ing his stop in Seat­tle for his 50–50-50, and let me tell you, they’re just the most won­der­ful and down-to-earth folks one can come across. You can feel that they’re a fam­ily, a strong unit that sup­ports each other.

    I can’t relate to ultra­run­ners like Anton K or Erik S, who are young and sin­gle with­out a care in the world. All they do is run, eat, sleep and run! But I can relate to Dean.

    And, that is why Dean K is the Ultra­ma­rathon Man in my book.

  • Clyn­ton

    Thanks for your com­ment and artic­u­lat­ing your view so well. Dean cer­tainly has inspired many, myself included. He put ultra run­ning on the map for many and got thou­sands to give run­ning a try again, much in the way Chris McDougall has, with Born to Run. It’s really great to hear he and his fam­ily are so down to earth from your per­sonal expe­ri­ence — they appeared to be in the movie.

    I think we do need a vari­ety of run­ners as dif­fer­ent folks inspire dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Thanks again for sharing.

  • Clyn­ton

    Thanks for your com­ment and artic­u­lat­ing your view so well. Dean cer­tainly has inspired many, myself included. He put ultra run­ning on the map for many and got thou­sands to give run­ning a try again, much in the way Chris McDougall has, with Born to Run. It’s really great to hear he and his fam­ily are so down to earth from your per­sonal expe­ri­ence — they appeared to be in the movie.

    I think we do need a vari­ety of run­ners as dif­fer­ent folks inspire dif­fer­ent peo­ple. Thanks again for sharing.

  • lisa

    I agree. There is some­thing so admirable in doing great things with actual real life respon­si­bilites. He is enthu­si­as­tic about his sport but I get the feel­ing that is not all he talks about and I just bet he has friends that AREN’T ultra run­ners… There is noth­ing spoiled or priv­i­leged about his persona.

  • Pingback: Beyond Fatigue, Pain and ACTN3: Dean Karnazes to Run Across America to Fight Childhood Obesity

  • Pingback: You've been Stumbled!

  • daniel

    The guy’s a joke, a self indul­gent jerk who, accord­ing to his own books, com­pletely neglects his wife and kids. I have to say that he almost turned me away from run­ning, he is capa­ble of turn­ing the beau­ti­ful and SIMPLE sport of dis­tance run­ning into a pop show. F.. him!

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin