Talk:Dean Karnazes

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Controversy[edit]

This article seems more like an attack on Dean Karnazes than an encyclopedia article. How can anything to do with ultramarathons be considering "not athletically significant"?

He's also not generally considered controversial, although some people do resent his "marketing style" and believe he is commercializing ultrarunning.

Keep running.

Jgw 23:06, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Karnazes is controversial, as the revert history of this article demonstrates. It would be good to hash out the differences between the two points of view here and come up with some truly neutral language. Sanguinity 20:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • Given the number of times I've reverted Cockroach we could consider that controversial too.  :) Put the changes you would like to see here, if we reach consensus, they'll stick in the main article. Wikibofh(talk) 03:35, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I don't know how to edit wikipedia articles, but I couldn't believe this article didn't talk about what can politely be called his "overzealous marketing". He takes advantage of the public's lack of knowledge of the sport and portrays himself as one of the elite participants in it so that he can make a buck off of the publicity. It is sickening that he receives so much publicity for such modest accomplishments, but his ability to manipulate the media is certainly his most important attribute. At the very least, there ought to be a "controversy" section on him in the main article. We can start with how far he is from the best times of today's top ultramarathoners, and also mention how others have run 50 states in 50 days before him.131.243.163.213 03:52, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I deleted a bit that says, "this appears to be a world record," because it isn't a world record, it's an unsubstantiated claim.131.243.163.213 03:58, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]


User 131.243.163.213's resentment and harsh judgment of Karnazes is unreasonable.

Karnazes is an exceptional athlete, as are all ultramarathoners. All ultramarathoners, however, are not exceptionally interesting people. Karnazes is exceptionally interesting, if not exceptionally handsome. His self-promotion is not unethical or wrong -- I find him inspiring and well-intentioned.

Further, the fact that he does not post the best times of today's top ultramarathoners makes him more appealing to the "everyman" or "everywoman" who may want to try to break into the ultra race scene or just get off their duffs and run a mile.

Much of Karnazes's own writing speaks to and encourages the common athlete and I respect that.

Finally, I laughed out loud when I saw that someone referred to Karnazes' accomplishments as "modest."

Anthurium9 14:16, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Most serious runners realize that Dean is more of a joke than a running god. He is an above average ultra runner pretending to be elite, which makes him appear pathetic to the serious runners. This article is a good example. Look at the bragging about completing Badwater. Most real runners that complete Badwater, of which there are many, are relatively humble people, in contrast with this amusingly arrogant guy. He pretends to be elite, but one has only to compare him with the real ultra elite people to see how far short he falls. Generally, I find that females (and presumably gay males) like looking at his body, and people who know nothing of running are impressed by his arrogance and superhuman claims. Youtube even has a "superman" video series section him, implying that he is superhuman. But I also find that anyone familiar with ultra-runners has already discovered that Dean is no god, just an overly proud runner easily defeated by the seriously talented runners. Tomasto (talk) 08:40, 5 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Without furthering the debate about whether Dean is an "elite" athlete (as this is not a discussion forum), I've attempted to clean up and reorganize the "Racing and endurance highlights" section. Funcrunch (talk) 17:27, 17 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Accomplishments[edit]

There's no point in including "run 146 miles across Death Valley in the middle of summer to the top of Mt. Whitney." That's little more than a description of the Badwater Ultra (which he is already listed as having won outright in 2004), and there are enough Badwater participants who have continued to the summit that it's not a distinctive accomplishment. Sanguinity 20:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Karnazes won the one-mile California State Long-Distance Championship" --- how is a one-mile race "Long-Distance"?216.49.77.67 (talk) 06:53, 21 March 2008 (UTC)blab[reply]

Because that was the standard junior high cross country distance in his league. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.96.81 (talk) 14:57, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

More bio + Forrest Gump[edit]

The bio is missing! How he began, etc. Check out this for instance: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/ultraman.html

Also, in the movie Forrest Gump, the protagonist started running all of a sudden.. does anybody know if this is based on Karnazes? --cslarsen 07:26, 27 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good point, I have his book and will add one. --Sadi Carnot 02:51, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The bio is wildly POV, and better fits an inspirational magazine article than an encyclopedia. He ran as a child; he quit running in high school after a dispute with his coach; fifteen years later he started running again to deal with the death of his sister; he describes the decision to start running again as akin to a religious conversion. Perhaps a few supporting details for each item. I don't see justification for including much more than that. Sanguinity 07:53, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Having a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dean_Karnazes&oldid=103857772 with lines like "...bar near his home in San Francisco being hit on by some attractive woman, who was not his wife. The company he was working for had just bought him a new Lexus." Is it really acceptable to being copying articles out of Wired verbatim? Whilst the information might be helpful towards the article, verbatim, POV text I would assume, not desired.
Can someone verify the accuracy of the statement : "He began to sober up about 15 miles later in Daly City at which point he realized that he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time and it brought a smile to his face. After 30 miles of running he was near Santa Cruz where he came to the realization that there were untapped reservoirs within him." The shortest pedestrian friendly route from Daly City to Santa Cruz is 76 miles. You telling me that this guy is not only an endurance runner, but able to bend time and space, as well? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cornloaf (talk • contribs) 10:02, 16 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I'm curious if anyone has his stats - height,weight,body fat%, resting heart rate, etc

Cut and Paste[edit]

It is troubling that User:Sfdk04 has deleted the prior coverage of Karnazes running and replaced it with what appears to be a cut and paste from another website. It is also troubling that User:Sfdk04 has only contributed to this article. Could you please explain what you are trying to achieve and discuss it here? Contributions/66.173.140.100 (talk) 19:17, 15 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • I did my best to clean it up. There are still two controversies deleted by User:Sfdk04 which someone might want to restore if they can be documented. I have read the 50/50 book and believe the current version captures the idea of that project while maintaining an encyclopedic tone. Some critics, e.g., http://www.runningforums.com/Dean_Karnazes___hack__t38619.html point out that some of the victories cited on his website are invented categories. So I did not retain the claims in contention. If they can be documented by reliable secondary sources other than Karnazes' websie, they can be added back as well. 66.173.140.100 (talk) 05:35, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

U-Top-It[edit]

I added this info about U-Top-It. I don't really have a legit source, besides the fact that I am his neighbor and know hom personally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.229.254 (talk) 03:57, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Run across America[edit]

He is currently doing a "Run Across America" for Regis and Kelly. Someone Add it. http://www.dadt.com/live/special/runacrossamerica/map/index.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.229.254 (talk) 04:04, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Medical phenomenon?[edit]

It was my impression that he is some kind of medical phenomenon, as described here http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/karnazes-effect So he basically can run forever. Dont know if other runners can do that too, though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.201.144.111 (talk) 02:36, 1 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

He very likely is different than the rest 7 billion people on this planet because of his ability to have higher than usual lactate threshold and also to turn the lactate acid into energy fast. Because of that his fame is kinda undeserved. It's like praising singers for their good voice but in reality they were the lucky ones to have this voice and they didn't do anything to accomplish that. Hey even I would make similar to his feats if I didn't get tired. Leonardo Da Vinci (talk) 08:23, 20 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Early running career[edit]

When reading the section on Karnazes early running career I cannot help but feeling that I am reading a novel or some sort of running Paul Bunyan. "By third grade he was participating in and organizing short running events with other children. As Karnazes grew older, he began testing his limits: by age eleven he had hiked rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon and had climbed Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States; for his 12th birthday, he cycled 40 miles (64 km) to his grandparents' home for fun without telling his parents." This information is uncited for one and many parts are not notable. The last sentence in particular reads like an advertisement to go buy a book.

The dialogue between Karnazes and his junior high coach is wholly inappropriate in maintaining objectivity (would be different if the coach was Bill Bowerman, etc.). A "most-improved" trophy means nothing to a man of such running prestige. There are serious problems with this entire article. This section in particular. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ermsam (talk • contribs) 00:07, 10 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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Pronunciation of surname is inaccurate[edit]

In all of the interviews with Karnazes that I watched, he's introduced as [kahr-NASS-iss]. I would have preferred to find an interview in which he introduces himself, but I couldn't readily locate one on the web. Here are source links:

David Letterman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3keevwe6N4

KCBD NewsChannel 11: https://www.facebook.com/KCBDNewsChannel11/videos/ultra-marathon-runner-dean-karnazes-is-in-town-to-run-the-mayors-marathon-sunday/10155943962522034/

TheGingerRunner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX_FlAPnm90


69.113.151.63 (talk) 17:38, 9 July 2019 (UTC)corpho[reply]

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