Shoukry’s writing is candid and pleasant to read and follow. There is no attempt to complicate his thoughts and feelings or frame them in more academic language; he simply tells his story as it happened. 

I enjoyed how his account was interspersed with thought provoking chapters on Pain, Death and Love. This meant that runner or not, I could relate to his losses, setbacks and triumphs. 

In many ways there are life lessons within this account and even though at first I struggled with Shoukry’s straightforward story telling, by the end it made sense. His messages are simple and straightforward and must be told in the same manner if we are to learn how to heed them. 

“Solitude is for reflection, self-discovery, and self-enrichment, while loneliness can lead to self-destruction.” 

As I read this book, I was struggling personally to reconcile feelings of anxiety, fear and safety, and I genuinely found spending twenty to thirty minutes sitting or lying down and reading this book incredibly therapeutic. I imagine it is a book you could return to again too because Shoukry does not revel arrogantly or unnecessarily in his successes. You are pleased for him and persistently urge him forward and thus when you come away from reading it, you find the same energy within yourself; urging you forward, urging you to persevere.