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Dead Man Running: From Alcohol to Atacama
This is a story of a boy born in the Lancashire mill town of Farnworth nr Bolton in 1951. One of nine children he was born into a world of violence and extreme poverty along with his two brothers and six sisters. His world as a child along with his siblings was to know nothing else but being constantly beaten and kept a prisoner in the house and never being allowed out to play. Having eventually grown up and left home he ran with the skinhead gangs and into a world of alcohol and drug abuse, written of by the medical profession with the words that he would either be dead are commit suicide before he reached the age of fifty. However his life was about to change in a dramatic way and eventually lead him seven thousand miles away to Chile South America as he took part in one of the worlds most extreme desert marathons The Atacama Desert. This story is true that boy was me.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2013
Really interesting tale of a guy with serious drink and drugs problems finding some balance in his life through running. He then takes on a desert based ultra-thon.
July 5, 2015
I thought this was an amazing book in many ways.
The style is very different and probably an English teacher's worst nightmare.
It is brutal when he shares his upbringing with us and then in later years his drug and alcohol addictions. He talks about his endurance event across the Chile desert interspersed between chapters of his childhood and later years. This is a good way of doing it as it gives us a breather from the relentless brutality.
For me it was the ending that was a real shocker and to a certain extent nearly spoilt the book. I can't say what it is of course, but I can say it was a total surprise and probably not very well explained. It's almost as if he had to finish the book immediately.
But overall the book is fantastic and I will read his next one. It is not a running book as such, more a story of addiction and endurance.
The style is very different and probably an English teacher's worst nightmare.
It is brutal when he shares his upbringing with us and then in later years his drug and alcohol addictions. He talks about his endurance event across the Chile desert interspersed between chapters of his childhood and later years. This is a good way of doing it as it gives us a breather from the relentless brutality.
For me it was the ending that was a real shocker and to a certain extent nearly spoilt the book. I can't say what it is of course, but I can say it was a total surprise and probably not very well explained. It's almost as if he had to finish the book immediately.
But overall the book is fantastic and I will read his next one. It is not a running book as such, more a story of addiction and endurance.
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June 20, 2012Can an alcoholic dry out go to the gym, run a marathon, enter a desert ultra marathon and succeed in all cases ? READ the book to find out !
July 11, 2020
A book with an amazing story at its core. Yes the grammar isn’t great but it at least feels authentic so I don’t mind that, but I did struggle with some of the back stories, some which felt unnecessary. I’m liked have liked to read more about the transition and the struggle. Anyway, it’s an incredible story and inspiring too. Makes me feel rather wimpy about my running!
June 23, 2023
Brilliant book. Hard to believe that someone can go through so much in their life and come through it.
October 13, 2013
I'm giving this three stars only because the story is amazing and in many ways inspirational. However, the book is poorly written and whilst Isherwood explains at the start of the book why this is the case, I really wish he'd accept the fact that his writing in order for it to make sense at times.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews