Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning Greatness

The Extra Mile hardly went the extra mile.

If you are searching for a book about endurance running that is well written, tells any kind of meaningful or engaging story or captures the spirituality of the long distance running experience - this is not it. The book reads like an incredibly boring and mundane journal and provides no inspiration, intellectual stimulation or enlightening insight into a woman who is, without argument, an incredible distance runner. I finished it only because I had bought it and felt compelled to get to the end of it which is how I felt it was written - because someone paid her to write it and she felt compelled to get to the end. Not worth your money or your time. Contrast this book to "Born to Run" and you will see the hundreds of ways it falls short.

Awful

I had such a hard time finishing this book. It was so poorly written. The topics were never followed through and did not flow at all. I would not recommend this book.

Book Content Lacking in 'Extra Mileage'

I waited in anticipation for several months for Pam's book to be released. She is an inspiration to all women endurance runners who juggle careers, family, and training schedules. I read her book from cover to cover in a few hours, hoping she would provide inspiration through personal glimpses of her reality (thoughts, battles,training motivations, disappointments) but the content seemed impersonal. She seemed to be holding back her innermost feelings-the things that make her 'tick' and the things that make readers into fans. The Anorexia information belonged in a textbook rather than in an autobiography. I hoped she would divulge some of her innermost thoughts, the ones that occupy her mind during lengthy runs, but again, the book remained impersonal. Most of the book's content has already been covered in magazine interviews and website commentaries. I expected Pam to offer us something unique, something that we didn't already know about her. This did not happen. I was untouched, unmotivated and frankly disappointed with Pam's book. As a woman, I wanted this book to be a success, but having read it, I can't help but believe what much of the ultrarunning world already has written about this woman. Dean's 'UltraMarathon Man' was a much better read and his upcoming challenge, '50 Marathons in 50 Days' is much more exciting than Pam's 300 mile accomplishment that attempted to upstage Dean's 262 mile feat.

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