What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

02008-08-27 | Health, Reading

I love that title!

Here is another example of the theme I keep circling back on – balancing body and mind… no, let me re-phrase that: Balancing Body and Brain – for I believe that Mind happens somewhere at the juncture of Body and Brain. Where body and brain meet, mind happens. That would make a fine bumper sticker. Check out this story:

‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by Haruki Murakami – Los Angeles Times
The Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has run nearly every day for the last 23 years and participates in at least one marathon a year. In his slim memoir, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” — the title is a nod to Raymond Carver, one of the many American writers that Murakami has translated — he narrates his origin story as a novelist and as a runner. In his 20s, he owned and operated a jazz club. While watching a baseball game, he decided, “out of the blue,” that he could write a novel. “Something flew down from the sky at that instant, and whatever it was, I accepted it.” After writing two books, he sold the club to devote himself to fiction — his first novel to be translated into English, “A Wild Sheep Chase,” followed. As his writing career took off, his health began to decline — the result of all that sitting and smoking. Murakami decided to take up running.

And Murakami does not not just jog… he runs marathons, ultramarathons (62 miles) and triathlons…