Not the running inspiration I was looking for

 Confessions of an Unlikely Runner: A Guide to Racing and Obstacle Courses for the Averagely Fit and Halfway Dedicated

by Dana L Ayers

Before you read my comments below, make note that I enjoyed the book a good bit and would recommend it for people who already run or jog a bit and enjoy reading about other people's adventures and mis-adventures on the road. So if the comments sound negative, consider them a sort of trigger warning--if the things that bugged me will also bug you, you may want to skip it.

The subtitle is completely inaccurate and misleading. It's not a "guide" at all, or a how-to, or even a book of tips other than the most obvious and unhelpful sort of tips, like, "just do anything that sounds interesting; you'll enjoy looking back at the suffering you endured."

Despite the title, it's really a book of episodes from her running history organized around the theme "How to motivate yourself to get fit." Her method, according to her humorous way of describing it, is to sign up for races she's not trained for. That motivates her to either get trained or else just go do the race anyway and hope for the best.

Like a lot of "runners", she considers walk/run intervals to be running--for example, running two minutes and then walking two minutes. While I'm not as maniacal as I used to be--in my younger days, I considered that if you stopped for any reason other than tying your shoe to be a failure--I don't agree with her. It's great exercise and a good way to finish a race if you run out of stuff halfway, but it's not running.

There was a great deal of trying to be funny. I don't recall laughing uproariously while reading it, but I smiled a couple of times.