slowdad

Geronimo Stilton and the Mouse Island Marathon

  My first introduction to Geronimo Stilton was quite a surprise.  RAAM isn't all that well known out there in the public and finding a kids book about it is like finding a your kid knows about currency hedging strategies.

Soon after I posted about that, I received a tweet from the mouse himself!  Yes, that's right, in between crushing competitors on the bike, and running a newspaper, Geronimo is on twitter. Well, at least a fan of his is.

Regardless, this tweet directed me to this book, The Mouse Island Marathon.  Not only is Geronimo a beast on the bike, but he's got a big engine on the run as well.  I'm not sure if he swims well but I see Kona in his future.

As fast as my fingers could fly, I waved them around and my wife went and paid an extortionate amount of money to have this book shipped to us, and while she was at it, bought a whole lot of other books as well.  Like The Time Crunched Cyclist, but that's another post.

If you want to scare your kids off of running a marathon, this is it.  This epic journey puts Geronimo in harms way so many times you'll wonder why Mouse Island doesn't declare a national state of emergency.

The book starts out similarly to the RAAM book.  A reluctant sign up, and a training regime that sounds about as fun as being water-boarded by the CIA. But Geronimo responds well and is fit as a fiddle by the start of the race.

I won't give it away, but Geronimo hits on a few girls, saves several lives, goes off course multiple times, meets a few really strange people, including a guy who is hoping Geronimo will die, gets dropped by the entire field, and still manages to pound out a pace at the end that would make Haile Gebrselassie look like he was an overweight Republican. The ending is predictable but at the same time probably the strangest marathon finish since Godzilla beat Mothra at Boston.

All in all, the kids loved this book.  And they were kept enthralled throughout the 45 minutes it took me to read it to them.  That's what's important.

Best Kids Book Ever? - Geronimo Stilton in The Race Across America

 Today I took the Kids out for a walk to get them out of the house.  We walked down to the water, took some pictures of water fowl, had a poop emergency, and came home.

But as the kids were running around, one of them shouted, "We're racing across America!"  This caught my ear.  First, we do not live in "America" at least in the modern definition.  Second, it's clear my kids have no sense of scale, rather they ask "are we still in Canada?" when we go anywhere, including the grocery store.  And third, because I had yet to introduce them to RAAM.  They are currently being forced to watch every second of footage of the "Tour of France" that I can download from the 'tubes.

(Just as an aside, it's rather fun to watch them watch the Tour videos.  They sit there with a keyboard on their laps pretending to control the riders.  It never fails, their guy wins. Fun times.)

I thought nothing more of the comment, until, with shock and awe, I spotted a book in their room called Geronimo Stilton, The Race Across America.  Shock, because I found something in their messy room, awe, because what other cartoon character has completed RAAM?

This book has got to be on the top ten list of kids books of all time!

Now, Geronimo doesn't get full marks, as he competes in the pairs category, as opposed to the solo version.  But he does do it with only a month of training. He must have been on the good stuff.

In the book his buddy, Bruce, recruits him, buys him a bicycles and then proceeds to take him on a 100 mile training ride.  Clearly Geronimo responds to training extremely well.

They have a full support crew, which includes the standard cast of characters from any RAAM attempt.  A Texan, a Triathlete, a guy who owns a bike shop, a relative, some hangers on who wish they were fit, and two hot looking female mice.

The story, like RAAM, is an epic sojourn across the States, the heat, the cold, and the dehydration all playing their requisite roles.  There's even some drama near the end, just like the real race.

Best of all is the ending, which involves a rock and the clobbering of another cyclist.  It's so real!

This book shall now be read to the kids over and over, ad nauseum, until they too believe they can ride a 20% grade after buying their first carbon road bike.

It's also encouraged me to go find more kids cycling/running books as quickly as possible.