Running on Empty by Marshall Ulrich

 My husband is an avid fan of running, an addict I may say of fun runs, marathons and blogging events about fun runs and marathons. As a non-runner, non-athletic person, I chortled at my husband whenever I have to wake him up because he’s running even in his sleep. In some days, I yearned that he will just rest for a while from running to be with us in attending our church’s Sunday service. But I guess, as agile as he is, he’s like a dog that should be consent to let loose, stretch those legs and scuttle.

            The night before our Bohol vacation, he handed me a book entitled “Running on Empty” by a certain Marshall Ulrich, an ultramarathoner, adventure runner, and mountaineer and was dubbed as the “EnduranceKing”. Finished all six hundred-mile races in one season, four-time champion of Badwater 146, only person to do Pikes Peak Quad twice, ran across Colorado thrice, done Leadville Trail 100 and Pikes Peak Marathon in one weekend, done all nine Eco-Challenges, first to do Badwater Quad, climbed Mt. Everest and ran across America.

After all the introductions to the author, my husband asked me if I could find time to read the book and produce a review for him. Maybe because I have nothing to do or perhaps he thought that it might encourage me to run. With much hesitation because of the word “running” on the title, I still said sure but after we have our vacation that I will start to read it.

Having read the foreword, it didn’t really give me much interest about the Marshall Ulrich or the book itself. It just left me with the feel that this will be just another bragging book of accomplishments in running. I’ve decided to skip the rest of the statement and went straight to his prologue. Alas! There I’ve read and understood the person behind the runs and challenges he inflicts to himself. I now comprehend that he’s a complex individual with much love to a person and witnessed his love suffered and gone with nothing he could do, doesn’t know how to convey his feelings and with only running as his outlet and release those frustrations in life but at the same time, to escape his veracity of facing his life and daughter alone devoid of his beloved Jean.

It depicts how, in his runs, he had lost his family (physically and emotionally) but also in his adventures, he gained them back. Running from something is an empty achievement against running for someone is a fulfillment like no other. I might think that Ulrich realized in latter part of his life because of his experience and his mentor, Mark Macy and his new found love – Heather, that he could have done better with his family especially to her daughter, Elaine.

I think that this book is a great instructional book for all runners, adventurers or even to some couch potatoes like me. Yeah, it is equipped with medical advices, physical preparation diagrams, but it’s between his words, he suggests that though your passion, self-contentment and dream are important, aim those with proper inspiration and try not reach them in expense of the lives of the people you prioritize. Two thumbs up for the book and the person that recognizes his own faults beyond his greatness.