Ultra-endurance athlete Jamie Marais has launched his first book, Determination: The Autobiography. It is based on a series of solo ultra-endurance challenges, each taking place in a dangerous setting with intensely challenging physical objectives and natural threats including unpredictable weather, high altitude, steep mountain passes and dangerous wildlife.
Marais is widely known for his extreme off-the-beaten-track adventures. His autobiography takes you behind the scenes of his extreme endurance feats and into the mind of an athlete who has achieved what is often considered to be impossible.
“The message of the book is very simple and very strong and the message is nothing you are facing in life is ever too big to face and overcome. That it in a nutshell and then it’s also about training your mind to see the silver lining on every cloud because it’s there you just have to learn to see it,” he says.
In 2016, he made history by becoming the first and only known person to speed-summit Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain 22 times in 28 hours over two days. He also recently became the first person to ride a mountain bike for thirty six hours in a big five game reserve to raise funds for rhino conservation.
Determination chronicles his experiences from an ongoing series of solo extreme-endurance challenges across various sporting disciplines. These include vertical running, extreme mountain biking and stand up paddling.
Each takes place in a dangerous setting in untamed Africa. Marais believes in doing these challenges for worthy causes close to his heart. He also believes that exercise can save a person’s life.
“Throughout the book I’m relating the challenges of what I face as an athlete to the challenges that people are facing in every day life and the underlying theme is: Get of the couch; get out there; get healthy, get active because exercise can change your life,” Marais said.
This autobiography comes at a time when people around the world are encouraged to adapt healthy lifestyles as the battle against the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
