Dean Karnazes

Dean Karnazes
Karnazes at the 2008 Napa Valley Marathon expo
Born	Constantine Karnazes (1962-08-23) August 23, 1962 (age 54) Inglewood, California
Nationality	American
Education	San Clemente High School (1981)
Alma mater	California Polytechnic State University
Known for	Ran 350 miles (560 km) in 80 hours and 44 minutes without sleep in 2005
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	70.76 kg (156.0 lb)

Dean Karnazes (born Constantine Karnazes; August 23, 1962) (pronounced car-NAH-sis), is an American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, which details ultra endurance running for the general public.

Karnazes was born in Inglewood in Los Angeles County, California southwest of Los Angeles, to Nick and Fran Karnazes, parents of Greek ancestry. He had two siblings, brother Kraig and a sister, Pary, who died in an automobile accident at the age of 18.

His father worked as a field naturalist for the Orange County Department of Education in 2006. The younger Karnazes grew up in Diamond Bar, California and San Clemente, California. In 2006 he said that he remained close to the friends he made at San Clemente High School, which was also attended by both his siblings. Growing up in the city of San Clemente gave him a love of the outdoors, and an appreciation of its small-town feel. At the time his parents still lived in the house where he had grown up.

While attending kindergarten, Karnazes began running home from school; he took up running for fun.

At first, Karnazes ran direct routes from school to his home. Later, he began to run diversionary routes that would extend his run and take him into uncharted territory. 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.

In junior high school, Karnazes met Jack McTavish, a track coach who became Karnazes' mentor and introduced him to the appeal of long-distance running. McTavish's basic running instructions were simple: "Go out hard and finish harder." Using this motto as a basis, that season Karnazes won the one-mile (1.6 km) California State Long-Distance Championship held on the Mt SAC track. At the end of the race, Coach McTavish commented: "Good work son, how'd it feel?" To this Karnazes replied: "Well, going out hard was the right thing to do. It felt pretty good." The coach replied: "If it felt good, you didn't push hard enough. It's supposed to hurt like hell." A week after the race, Karnazes' father's job was transferred to San Clemente. These were the last comments the coach ever said to Karnazes, who has stated that he lives by these words to this day.