Kilian Jornet - Courir ou mourir (2013)

In 2013, Kilian was 26 years old. I was 25 and the way I was writing my blog was very similar. I'm not an athlete but I wrote about my travel adventures, hitchhiking and such. And I suck at writing. Sorry Kilian, I don't mean to insult you.

In the beginning the book is captivating, getting inside look at young Kilian's adventures as a child, teenager and young adult. The latter half is more and more of "everything hurt but I kept running". I really like Kilian as a public personality. I think he is very smart, and he has a strong moral compass about protecting the environment and fair sport and such. Needless to say he is one of the very best mountain athletes of our generation. But reading this book I had the thought that it is obvious that he is a runner, not a writer, or maybe his editor sucked. I have heard that he has written deeper - for lack of a better word, texts since, and it's probably worth looking them up. In Courir ou mourir which I read in French (!) he gives insight in some of his most impressive achievements of the time, races like Petra Menta, lake Tahoe, the Traverse of the Pyrenees, Western States 100 and his Ascension of the Kilimanjaro.