Smile, or You're Doing it Wrong: A Journey from Rock Bottom to Redemption

Ultrarunner Andy Glaze has spent years moving through landscapes that test the limits of the human body—hundred-mile races, multi-day marathons, mountains and deserts that demanded everything. But the toughest endurance challenge Andy faced wasn’t found in any of those miles, it was in rebuilding a life shattered by addiction, institutional abuse, and a childhood full of chaos. This is the unfiltered story of how a kid fell hard but got back up even harder.

From a wilderness rehab program where kids hiked for days without food, to a “therapeutic” boarding school run by predators, Glaze survived places that were meant to break people. But this isn’t just a story about the wreckage. It’s about what comes after.

Firefighting. Fatherhood. Finding peace on trails where every step hurts like hell but heals something deeper. Because the difference between a life ruled by fear and a life guided by possibility comes down to one simple act: taking the first step.

This memoir is about endurance in its rawest form: the endurance to keep moving forward even when it feels impossible, to rebuild a life one step at a time, and to discover that sometimes the only way through the darkness is to keep going—and smile, or you’re doing it wrong.