Zen and the art of ... running.
I was genuinely saddened to learn this week of the death of Robert Pirsig, author of that famous tome Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had in only recent times attempted to re-read this book, my first reading of it being many years ago. I found it then to be something of an epiphany. A workmate and friend had encouraged, and then ostensibly forced me to read it by giving me a copy. Not only was it a brand new pressing of the book, but he gift-wrapped it in brown paper, upon which he produced some extraordinary artwork, the essential quality of which, plus the irony of producing quality art on a disposable wrapper of course directly corresponded to the subject of the book. Those of you who have read Zen and the art... will understand what I mean. Needless to say, I kept both the book and the wrapper.
Pirsig's pursuit of quality as a philosophy of life is both humbling and revelatory, and I was transfixed by that first reading. I think it's fair to say too, that it was a not insignificant influence in my decision to take up running, or at least reinforce the idea as being a good and worthy one.
I say that I tried to re-read it just recently but found it impossible. The book is also immensely sad in many respects, and re-reading it is very difficult because of that. From the obituaries I have seen, it seems I'm not the only to have found a return to the story troublesome. Despite that, it remains on my list of extremely personally influential and inspirational books, right up there with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and works of the great authors such as Hemingway and Dostoyevsky.
Quality, then, is important in any number of ways. Maddeningly indefinable, as Pirsig points out, we may not be always able to quantify it, but we invariably know it when we see it. So it is with running. We know when we've run well, even if sometimes the logbook shows it as just another run. It was ever as much today, with my long run impressive enough, I suppose, but not, on the whole, a seemingly brilliant effort compared to past glories. I knew though, that this one was, in fact, something special. I had set it up well enough, with two good tempo hill climbs earlier in the week. These had been good outings, and I was looking forward to the long run today, although not knowing really what to aim for other than something a bit longer than 25km. In the end I covered 30.5km at about marathon race pace, i.e. on or about PB effort, although, as we know, it's those last 10km of a marathon that really matter. Anything you've done to that point counts as nothing, really. It is, however, 30.5km covered in really good form, and I'm marking it down as a 'quality' run, because it was a good run, and I must doff my hat to Pirsig for showing me, all those years ago, that the pursuit of quality in whatever we do, is a worthy and life-affirming task. When you get it right, it zings, and you know that it's a rare accomplishment, if only at a personal level, which in some ways makes it even more worthy of note.
The month of April, therefore, has rounded out with 222km covered, my second consecutive month of 200km plus, setting me up nicely for the races ahead. Next up, the Sydney half marathon in three weeks time.
(The extraordinary, deep and meaningful wrapping produced by my artistic workmate for his gift to me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.)
April May be alright.
