Book Review: You Are an Ironman

With Ironman Arizona 2013 less than two weeks away I thought it would be a good time to share this book that I just finished: "You Are an Ironman" by Jacques Steinberg. 

You are an Ironman follows six people through their training for Ironman Arizona in 2009.  This book is more of a memoir than an training manual.  The author does a great job of capturing the spirit of the Ironman, explaining to the reader why people do these the types races and their back stories, some of which are funny, some of which are inspirational and some just plain strange (there was one guy who heard about people at his Gym talking about finishing one and just decided to jump right in, or at least that what it seemed like).  There are also short inspirational stories about people the athletes meet on the way such as about leg amputee and would be Ironman Rudy Garcia-Tolson.  The tales of the would be Ironmen (sorry ladies they’re called Ironmen no matter what sex the competitor is) do a good job of conveying the ups and downs of the training that one goes through when preparing for an Ironman. 

The only drawback to my specific book, was that it was in audiobook format.  While I like audiobooks since they allow me to make better use of my time and are a good way to pass the training hours, in this case it made the book a bit hard to follow as the author jumped from one person to the next, so I would recommend that you get it on paper or in your favorite electronic format.  Additionally since there weren’t really characters the performance was more of a book reading rather than a performance of a fiction book.

A mix of fun, and inspiration, if you like endurance sports I would highly recommend this book. 

4 out of 5 stars.

My Rating Scale:
0 Stars: I am dumber for having read this and may GOD have mercy on the soul of the author
1 Star: This is a terrible, terrible book
2 Stars: I didn't really like it but it wasn't terrible (nor terrible, terrible)
3 Stars: Ehh it was OK very middle of the road, like this rating
4 Stars: I really liked this book.
5 Stars: I love this book and you're wrong if you disagree