Beyond Impossible

From Reluctant Runner to Guinness World Record Breaker

By: Lucy Waterlow, Mimi Anderson

Narrated by: Lucy Brown

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

This incredible story of how an ordinary mum ran her way into the record books will inspire beginner runners and die-hard marathon devotees alike, proving that, no matter where life takes you, it’s never too late to achieve your dreams and do the impossible.

When Mimi first started jogging on a treadmill as an unfit 36-year-old mother of three, she never imagined she would go on to become a world-record-breaking ultrarunner. After coming to terms with the anorexia that had impacted her life from a young age, Mimi begins to reassess her relationship with food and finds a new resolve in running. With a renewed sense of purpose, she decides to take the sport that saved her life to the next level, training hard and throwing herself in at the deep end by entering the epic Marathon des Sables in the Sahara desert, despite still being a novice runner. One startling success leads to another, as she finds herself taking on ever-more-challenging races - from the Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley, USA, to the 6633 Arctic Ultra - all building up to her biggest challenge yet: attempting to gain the Guinness World Record time for a female running 840 miles from John o’Groats to Land’s End.

©2017 Mimi Anderson (P)2020 W F Howes

Critic Reviews

"This book will inspire you to take on new challenges and achieve things you never believed you could.... Mimi will inspire you to be brave enough to take that next step on your running journey." (Leanne Davies)

Inspirational

Great story about overcoming. She describes the training tools used by ultra runners and the memorable points of each race.

interesting story

Persevered with this one as was interested in the story and ultra running but found the narrators voice just wasn't for me. writing style also a bit repetitive. inspiring lady but won't revisit the book

Great book

really great inspirational running, amazing to hear of all the great races completed, very inspiring

Loved it!

Once you got used to the more unusual narration style (it's a bit like is Siri narrated it), the story is incredible. From someone who was using exercise to try and have a smaller and smaller body, and suffering from a eating disorder to someone who discovered to joys of adventure running. Mimi should be so proud of herself!

Interesting story clouded by poor narration

I nearly gave up on this as the narrator’s voice is terribly girly and also monotonous. Undoubtedly an extraordinary set of experiences and achievements. There is a really interesting story in here but you do have to be prepared to get over the way it’s presented. It could also benefit from a bit more digging into the emotional and physical toll, and more visceral detail that might bring it to life more.

Truly a running legend

Starting off the narrator irritated me but I got over it and found the positives..loved how she conveyed emotions!
Mimi is one of my favourite ultrarunners. Looking forward to her next book!

Is this

A children’s book or just very patronising? I only listened to about 40 mins but maybe if you’ve never read or listened to a book on running you may enjoy it.