Iron Cowboy - Redefine Impossible

By: James Lawrence

Narrated by: Millian Quinteros

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Iron Cowboy is an endurance memoir in the tradition of Dean Karnazes’s Ultramarathon Man - a lifetime’s worth of intensely lived experience packed into 20 riveting chapters. Listeners will discover the secret to redefining their own goals and achieving great success. When James Lawrence (aka the Iron Cowboy) announced his plan to complete 50 full-distance triathlons in 50 consecutive days in all 50 states, the only person who believed that he could pull it off was James himself (and his wife, Sunny). An Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. In Lawrence’s case, he would have to complete those distances and then make it to the next state in time to do it all over again the next day. Even Lawrence’s coach didn’t think he could do it; he penciled in another event the day Lawrence was supposed to complete the challenge.

But with the support of Sunny and their five children in tow, and with grassroots support conjured always at the last minute via Facebook, Lawrence accomplished exactly what he set out to do. Iron Cowboy is the story of Lawrence’s herculean 50-day journey and all the wonderful, miserable, and life-threatening events that happened along the way, as well as a glance at his life leading up to the mission, and winning two prior world records.

Lawrence holds two world records in the Guinness Book of World Records: one for completing 22 half-Ironmans in one year (2010) and one for completing 30 full Ironmans in one year (2012). In 2015, he set a record for completing 50 Ironman distances in 50 states in 50 days. Through social media and press, Lawrence was able to find fans in each state - anywhere from three to 500 people - to complete some of the Ironman alongside him, and supporters were invited to join him for the Iron Cowboy 5k (the last 3.1 miles of James’s marathon); for his last Ironman in his home state of Utah, more than 3,500 people showed up. Along the way, Lawrence survived tropical storms, internal bleeding, hypothermia, hyperthermia, dehydration, nerve damage, infected foot blisters, a blood-clot scare, extreme sleep deprivation (he only got four to five hours of sleep each night), and a bike crash!

©2017 James Lawrence (P)2019 James Lawrence

Will help put struggle into perspective

This book will help you reframe what is possible and what real mental toughness looks like.

it's OKAY

there's no way that the story was this boring. seems to not be told well.

I love the Iron Cowboy!

I have been following the Iron Cowboy and his many feats of endurance. I was super excited to “read” this book once I got it. The story is wonderfully written and makes you feel like you’re there. Unfortunately, because I’ve heard the Iron Cowboy speak so many times, the narrator of this audiobook left little to be desired.

if you're a Triathlete, this is a must-read

Enjoyed the book very much. Went into much more detail than the IMDb documentary. if you like the grit and mental brutality this sport requires, you'll love the stories within this book.

Great story, HORRID performance

James Lawrence is one of the most impressive people on the planet. His story is incredible. I just wish they hadn’t chosen to record this book using a robot voice program. I wish James had just done the book himself. Still worth the read, but really hard to get through due to the voice.

Great story but damn

I think i counted 5 or 6 times james said young living essential oils. Lol thats some shady mlm stuff.
James sounds like a amazing bad ass iron man but he did himself no favors writing this book seems like he blamed everything on everyone else, didn’t take responsibility for anything going bad. The story sounded like he took advantage of people and threw his friends and people helping him under the bus for the smallest reason. Oh course thats just what i got out of the story!

Not the right narrator

I'm never one to write bad reviews but I feel it must be said that the narration doesn't match the power of the story. James is one of the most incredible and inspiring athletes of our millennium. His journey has without a doubt changed my life and the lives of anyone who hears it or was apart of it. When I hear James speak on podcasts and other interviews I get fired up & teary. I simply didn't get much of that feeling from this narration. I don't mean to take anything away from Millian as he has a nice voice and doesn't have poor narration skills it just doesn't fit the tone of the story. I felt bored listening to this book and am struggling to finish it. I want to hear James narrate his mental & physical pain and suffering first hand. Its so much more powerful that way.

Deep respect for such an incredible human being! James is the champion!

This was a humbling and inspiring book to listen to! Peeling back the layers of the journey leading up to, and the journey through such an incredible undertaking was an inspiring thing to be able to read, or in my case listen to! I did not fully know who James was when I Participated in day 88 of conquer 100 (and 1) and completing the full distance triathlon with James and his team! That was for me, something I had never done before… I had never swam biked or run any of the fall distances required in order to complete a full distance triathlon! Thank you James, for giving the gift of writing your story in this book and four, inspiring me personally in my life to reach for an achieve new levels that I had previously never considered! You are the man, the myth, the legend….You, are the Iron cowboy!

I struggled to finish from begining to end

So, I'm really late on who the Iron Cowboy is. I was browsing Amazon prime and saw the documentary. watched it with my eyes wide open and didn't look at my phone once! blown away.Looked James up and he just finished his 101 iron man's.But I figure let's go to the begining. I picked up the audible to find more details. honestly, I thought this book was all over the place. it was like a couple books, then like a deck of cards flipped into each other. I personally had a hard time following along. The book is about the torcher of the iron man's. I feel like I know all about his shoulder, because it was like the focus of every chapter. I get it, it hurt. But that's tik tok or youtube podcast content. Granted, by day 7, it was terrible. But, that's just about all this book is. In the end, it's still not much. I'm really impressed with Iron Cowboy, just not with this book. I think the author that helped David Goggins, did such a better job capturing his story. anyways, I would recommend the documentary. Not the book.

Great story, wonky narration

I loved the story. The narration was kind of wonky in that the narrator made weird pauses where there shouldn't be, like there were commas in places there shouldn't be.