Considering the three running books I have on my bedside
table at the moment, What I talk about when I talk about running from Haruki
Murakami was the one I started to read posteriorly but finished first. Not just
because it was shorter and easier to read, but more important, it talks about
how running can change your entire life’s dynamic. If you are looking for
training sheets and diet schedules, this book is not for you. However, you will
actually enjoy this quick read if your interests lies in understanding deeper
the feelings and issues of a successful professional (in this case a worldwide best-selling writer) trying to balance his routine
around working, ageing, traveling and running (and triathloning and
ultra-maratoning and etc, etc, etc – this guy can do anything, it is
incredible).
Personally speaking, when Murakami talked about his writing activities
I found a little bit monotonous because I was more interested in the running
parts. Nonetheless, after a while you start to understand how his job as a
writer was intrinsically connected to his athlete aspect. You cannot talk about
one and leave the other aside. The necessity to overcome barriers, walls and
targets were equally important in both sides.
Anyway, it’s not because it is a book focused more on life than
running that you will not be able to get some very good tips on the way. For example, I am
extremely conscious of how sluggish I am - ‘runningly’ speaking. There are some days
the fact that I am slower than others (honestly, I occasionally feel that I am
slower than EVERYONE else) really annoys me. Seeing all these older and heavier
people passing me like they are not even making an effort drives me insane
sometimes. But Murakami talks about how he dealt with the same preconception. It
is reassuring and empowering to have a guy who once finished the course Athens-Marathon under
excruciating conditions accepting and talking openly about feeling the same embarrassment.
Summarising this topic, he said that some people are slower just because
that’s how we are. Different human beings with different body structures. That's all. Getting annoyed and upset
it is not going to help – or change – anything. Denial just makes things worse.
Besides, it is not that some people are 'slow', most of the time it is just because
some bodies take longer to warm-up. That’s how he figured it out that he was
doing right running long-distances. If your muscles take 5km to heat up,
running short distances will be always frustrating because your body will not
even have time to reach its full potency before the race is over.
In my opinion, the chapter he talked about his experience
running a 62-mile ultra-marathon was the best one. I was so curious about the
end I couldn’t stop even when my train got to the final destination. I wish I could stay
longer sitting there just to be able to finish. You can feel in
your bones the pain he felt during the course, the anguish. “Even though my legs were working now, the thirteen miles
from the thirty-four-mile rest stop to the forty-seventh mile were
excruciating.” OMG. 100km. I will not say anything else about this chapter (and
the book) because I don’t want to spoil anyone’s curiosity any longer, but it
is a book definitely worth reading.
