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  • Operation Ironman

  • One Man's Four Month Journey from Hospital Bed to Ironman Triathlon
  • By: George Mahood
  • Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
  • Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (165 ratings)

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Operation Ironman cover art

Operation Ironman

By: George Mahood
Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
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Summary

Operation Ironman follows George Mahood's hilarious and inspiring journey from a hospital bed to an Ironman triathlon. After major back surgery, George set himself the ultimate challenge:

  • A 2.4 mile swim
  • A 112 mile bike ride
  • And a 26.2 mile run
  • All to be completed within 16 hours

He couldn't swim more than a length of front crawl, he had never ridden a proper road bike, he had not run further than 10k in 18 months...and he had never worn Lycra.

He had four months to prepare.

Could he do it?

©2015 George Mahood (P)2020 George Mahood

What listeners say about Operation Ironman

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Great listen in the build up to an Ironman.

Easy to listen to with humour dotted throughout, with a very human story throughout.

1 person found this helpful

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Read before doing an Ironman

Entertaining as well as giving a few hints and tips. Loads of similarities with my experience training.

1 person found this helpful

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just brilliant

George just writes like he's taking us with him in through the present into, the past and even the future.

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Very inspiring

I currently intend on getting to an ironman start line and this was a very inspiring book to listen to and nice to hear such a posative outlook on life and unpredictable situations. Well done.

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Loved it!

Have listened twice through. Very funny and inspirational. Will probably listen again. Great story.

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Inspiring

Brilliant story, brilliant journey. Very inspiring. Highly recommend to anyone interested in triathlons or lacking motivation

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Really Enjoyable

Great listen, I previously listened to free country again a great story. Will definitely be listening to more books by George Mahood 👌🏻.

1 person found this helpful

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What an absolute slog

For the most part I found this book very irritating and an absolute slog to get through, and not just because the narrator is annoying and can't sing, but honestly when he tries to imitate children or do any other accent that's not his own its like nails on a chalk board.

I have done the Ironman before and I know how much you have to sacrifice and how long you have to train for to even stand a hope in hell of completing it.
This guys attitude to a lot of it absolutely stank, I mean why Ironman? I admire the fact he wanted to do something physical to help with recovery from surgery but why not a standard triathlon or maybe even a half ironman at most? Most of the time, to me it came across that he appeared to be doing this for the social glamour rather than the personal achievement, this was obvious by the fact he takes the opportunity to tell everyone and anyone that he is doing it, but at the same time said he was only willing to put in 3-4 months of training, half of which he couldn't even run or ride a bike properly because he was still recovering. While I was racing and competing in lots of races over the course of a decade I saw the finisher percentage of the races I took part in radically decline as more and more people signed up to do these races and had to pull out due to
lack of training. While reading this book I couldn't help but think this guy is exactly the person I used to begrudge seeing on the start lines of races, turning up hoping to just have fun after having done little to no training. Normally I have absolutely nothing against this, especially of course if it's a beginners race, but the Ironman is an elite race, which is another reason why I thought he chose to do it to impress others rather than to help himself.

He also spends a lot of time explaining techniques and ideas he doesn't really appear to understand, so it's like listening to someone paraphrasing from someone elses book a lot. The book also contains a ton of boring conversation and a lot of filler that isn't really needed in the book, but does utilise the narrators terrible accents.

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Just good fun

If (like me) you’d only listened to/read George’s travel books (which are awesome!) and you were in two minds about this one, then throw that second mind in the bin and buy this book! Cracking story, loads of fun, and well worth a credit.

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Narrator made it hard work!

Inspirational story although heavily padded, narrator really made it a tough listen, annoying silly impersonations ruined it for me, wish I’d bought the book and read it myself.

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  • nochum kurinsky
  • 19-08-21

Great storyteller

I downloaded the book because I basically read and listen to everything triathlon related. Turns out it’s a gem. He’s a great story teller. His story is cool but his delivery is the genius here. He’s funny, self deprecating, and kinda corny at times. There are some little tidbits of Ironman training advice thrown in as well. Great ‘read’!

1 person found this helpful

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  • Chris & JoJo Davis
  • 27-05-23

Good story and fun listen

It was a fun listen and narration was very entertaining. People scoring it low missed the point. It is not a trading guide. It’s a fun retelling of one person’s Ironman attempt. Just what I needed!!

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  • David and Victoria
  • 18-12-22

What an amazing story! Excellent Narration!

One of George's best books! An incredible story of determination and grit with a little craziness!

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  • Christine Wulff
  • 11-07-22

The longest humble brag I’ve ever sat through

The subject line says it all. Don’t bother this book is a complete turn off.

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  • Oscar Perales
  • 08-07-22

Great story

Great story together with a very good narrative. Funny, inspirational and well written. Highly recommend

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  • Randy J. Reupert
  • 23-05-22

Fantastic book!!

Well written, well read. Very inspiring!! Incredible journey for a man just out of surgery! Definitely worth it!!

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  • Mary Herron
  • 13-05-21

I thought it was great!!

So funny and heartfelt. Loved the English accent and the English style it was written in. I'm going to check out his book about biking across the UK...or was it just England? I'll look forward to finding out.

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  • Steve Hughes
  • 20-04-21

Very entertaining audio book

I really enjoyed this book, helped to pass the time while doing my own training. Many inspiring, funny and sweet moments.

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  • HikerGirl
  • 18-03-21

Ironman goals

Pretty entertaining as I am training for a 70.3 but thinking maybe should have just gone for the full instead! Fun listen/read!

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  • Jesper Soerensen
  • 01-03-21

Brilliant

A very inspiring story that entertains and amazes throughout. Funny and brilliantly narrated as well. Highly recommended.