Over the Edge: A Regular Guy's Odyssey in Extreme Sports

Over the Edge: A Regular Guy's Odyssey in Extreme Sports is the compelling record of Bane's adventures pushing himself to the limit - by participating in some of the world's most dangerous athletic pursuits. Traveling across the country and around the globe, Bane literally risked life and limb to attack thirteen death-defying sports on his "List."
From a marathon in the hellish temperatures of Death Valley to whitewater rafting in Honduras, kayaking off a waterfall in New Zealand, diving in Florida's pristine underwater caves, bicycling through the mountains of Colorado at speeds 45 miles per hour, and swimming in shark-infested waters in the first leg of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, Bane's journey captures all of the exhilaration, excitement, and fear that have accompanied one man on his journey to the edge and back.

Everyone makes lists, but the baker's dozen of personal challenges that Michael Bane came up with to test the breaking points of body and soul are literally breathtaking. The adventures he exuberantly narrates are the extreme of the extreme, like swimming from Alcatraz Island, running through Death Valley, bicycling the Rocky Mountains, and climbing Mt. Denali. Along the route of his audacious odyssey, he meets his share of fascinating fellow extremists, one of whom describes the author as a kind of "George Plimpton from Hell," an apt depiction, to be sure, of man intent on journeying to a daringly engaging version of hell and back.