I enjoyed reading this book; I found it to be real, inspiring, and quite funny at times. The writing is clear and easy to follow. I liked the author’s humour, the rhythm of the story, and the fact that the chapters kept switching between talking about Parkinson’s and running. As a runner (and marathon lover) myself, I also enjoyed the more “technical” parts discussing training plans and race goals. The book centres around the author's journey towards the goal of running five of the World Marathon Majors in six weeks, while living with Parkinson’s disease. With each page, I felt more and more involved in the author’s journey, “cheering” for him to complete this humongous challenge. This story is an example of the indomitable spirit of the human condition and I am positive that it will be a source of motivation for anyone facing adversity in their lives. ( )

After receiving a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, Drake also reads about the benefit of strenuous exercise for helping with symptoms and progression. Drake decides to run 6 marathons in 6 weeks!
Drake shows so much determination, positive attitude and gratitude for his support system. The book is very moving, and informative. It reads like an intimate diary, with detailed information of his race experience, travel and a lot of people he encounters on the way.
When I first saw the premise of the book, at Library Thing Early Reviewers; I was very interested in learning about Joe’s story. I expected a little more insightful and less detail heavy on the marathon experience. I am sure anyone who enjoys running and marathon will enjoy this book, but also anyone who may want to learn more about it.
Thank you Joe Drake for the book and wishing you the best in all your future endeavours! It was an inspiring read. ( )

The book was a very motivational read! Congratulations on your achievement in racing the big 6 marathons in a compressed time-frame due to Covid. What an inspiring story of the authors diagnosis of Parkinson's and how he reacts to it by following the doctors orders and start his extreme exercise regimen with the goal of the marathons as his target. I definitely came away from the book more informed. I am now more informed about Parkinson's disease and the effect it can have on the body and the mind, as well as the emotional toll it takes on everyone involved including family and friends. But the theme of the book was more about the hope that there will be a cure in the future, and the authors efforts are going to be contributing to the necessary research to find a treatment, and eventually a cure for Parkinsons. I also learned a lot about what it takes to run a marathon, it's not just tying up your shoe laces and going, you have to train your body and plan effectively on how to make it to the end. There is a lot of information in the book that should give me a head start, should I ever decide to run a marathon. (not so sure about that, but who knows!) The book also talks a lot about the community he encounters in the marathon world, where everyone is supportive of each other, and the friends that the author met along the way. I received this book as part of the early reviewers on LibraryThing, and have also made a donation to the authors charity of choice, the Michael J Fox Foundation. ( )

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has a few chronic illness diagnoses under my belt, I found this to be a very inspiring read that reminded me that I am not my diagnosis and that I am still able to do amazing things.

While Joe's entire journey from diagnosis to 6 time marathon runner was fascinating, I found the section about coping with the pandemic to be the most interesting. The added curve balls that the pandemic brought and how Joe coped with them was absolutely astounding. I also want to give major props to the organizers of the Seattle marathon and their brilliant idea to make it a virtual race. ( )

It's hard not to cheer the author on as he commits to running the 6 World Marathon Major marathons after a Parkinson's diagnosis (and a couple more, to get qualifying times). I liked his race recaps, although at times they were very name-heavy (I imagine he met lots of new buddies, and also wanted to thank friends and supporters). I laughed out loud when the author decided it would be easy to take the T from Logan to Copley Square. I moved away from Boston 10 years ago, and taking the T (specifically to/from the airport) is still a recurring nightmare of mine.

I also thought it was humorous that the author had minimal or no experience with the race chips that you tie into your shoe laces. I've been running for long enough that I had to actually mail a postcard and check in to register for my earliest races, and I'm much younger than the author. Those shoe chips used to be the only way for chip times, prior to the now-ubiquitous RFID. I've also run some races where a guy with a stopwatch yells out times to a buddy holding a clipboard. (I was impressed with how accurate that method was.)

So the book was relatable, and made me nod and smile and laugh in appreciation with what the author went through.

The author gave information about his preferred training method and fueling / hydration strategy. Beginner runners should not take that information as gospel. The author recommends drinking 3/4 L of water every 60 minutes of exercise. If I did that, I'd have to swim through my runs. I eat and drink very little up to the half marathon distance (and I know what works for me through loads of experience), so beginners should experiment and practice and see what works for them.

I wish the author would have, at one point, acknowledged the enormous amount of money his undertaking cost. The book reads like "if I can do this: anyone can!", but in fact, runners without deep pockets cannot. Charity running Boston is about $7,500. You either need to know a lot of people who can donate, a few rich people who can donate, or be OK with coughing up your own 7.5k come race time. (I lived in Boston 5 years and was allowed to volunteer at the marathon, but never run it. Too slow, too poor. I'm obviously still a little sore about that. Even NYC lets their committed runners and volunteers run the NYC marathon. Not Boston.) That's just one of the author's 6 races, or 5 if you don't count the Seattle virtual race. Then there's race fees, airfare, the fees he paid for a marathon tour company, hotels, and the carbon offsets the author purchased. This is totally not to discount the author's efforts, which were really great, but just to bring to light something I couldn't stop thinking about while I read the book. ( )