What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

It feels right for me to write about this book as the first blog post on this blog, since I just ran my second marathon.

A brief synopsis: the book follows Haruki Murakami as he trains for the New York Marathon. Although the story is told from a first-person perspective, he spends much of the time reflecting on his running and the role that it has played in his life. The book includes parts about how he started running as he was tranisitioning from a jazz bar owner to a writer, running a marathon in the hot heat from Athens, Greece to Marathon, Greece, and the pain of a 64 mile ultramarathon.

There were parts of the book that I immediately connected with, and others that made me feel like a bit of an imposter. Early in the book he describes running as something that isn’t particularly enjoyable, yet still is satisfying. The way Murakami articulates his relationships with running is how I feel about my relationship with running: something that feels like a requirement in my day, rather than an option. I feel better on the days I run. It’s a time to clear my head and create some space in my day where my brain can just float in thought. It’s also the rare part of my day where I don’t let people contact me through any technology.

However, the book also made me feel like a bit of an imposter when it comes to running. I’ve ran two marathons in my life. The first was last August, and I ran it in 4 hours and 15 minutes. It was admittedly slow, but it was my first time running a a marathon so I cut myself some slack. The second was March 21st of this year. I had thought that this second marathon would be much faster, as I had been training since the previous marathon, I had ran a half-marathon in 1 hour and 45 minutes, and my running pace when doing long runs was averaging to be 8 minutes and 15 seconds, which would give me a total marathon time of 3 hours and 36 minutes with a few seconds left over.

It would be an understatement to say that the run did not go as I planned. I ran the first half in 1 hour and 40 minutes, and thought I was going to finish the marathon in 3 hours and 30 minutes. However, at around mile 18 my legs started to give out. I was struggling to walk, much less run. I ended up walking for about a mile and a half, before starting a quarter mile running and then a quarter mile running. I followed this pattern for the rest of the marathon. I ended the marathon at 4 hours and 12 minutes, and felt pretty defeated.

Murakami talks about taking pride in his marathons becuase he never walked during his marathon: he was always either running or stretching. I think I felt a sense of failure becusae I have never ran a marathon where I didn’t walk. It definitely felt like the marathons I ran were a bit of a sham.

Despite this, I still found the book deeply motivating. Murakami’s consistency with his running is shocking. He runs 6 days a week, and has a set of miles every week that he says he wants to run. It’s a consistency I want to aim for, and it’s starting to shape how I think about traininig.

I think the book isn’t for everyone. I felt that I connected to what Murakami was writing about becuase I consider myself a runner. I think I would have found it hard to connect to the book if I wasn’t someone who ran consistently. That being said, if someone is even a casual runner, I’d strongly consider reading the book. Although it’s a book about running, it’s really a book about so much more. It’s about consistency, and grit, and a sense of self-care that feels necessary in daily life. It’s a book that feels simple on the surface and yet it informatively profound.