2010 A running oddity

[Bierzo Baggie]

Not a lot to report. Read a couple of books which I’d first heard about here.

What I think about when I think about running by Haruki Murakami.
A strange little book which made me want to learn Japanese more than take up running. Read it in 2 sittings and then gave it to my uncle Trev so I can’t quote from it directly but it went something like this...

“Why do I run? I just do. Why not? It might be a good thing. It might not. But hey, that’s life isn’t it? Or it probably is.. who’s to say?” and so on for 150 odd pages.

I can only suppose that some of the nuances would be better expressed in Japanese. Or maybe not, who knows?

Born to Run by Christopher MacDougall.

Feet in the Clouds for yanks. Brash, punchy and where the previous book relied very much on understatement, this one could make a very decent film complete with whooping ultra runners high fiving Tarahumara indians. A cracking read from start to finish but I still prefer Feet in the Clouds for the same reason as I always preferred Chigley to Sesame Street.

Incidently, the guy who finished second in Caballo Loco’s race against the Tarahumara, Scott Jurek, and who McDougall described as “the best in the world” was rather pissed off on being beaten by 58 year old Marco Olmo in the Mont Blanc ultra trail. So pissed off was he that he came back the next year ...only to be thrashed by 19-year old Kilian Jornet. I posted here about the truly epic 2008 race, I don’t know if
anybody ever read it.
http://www.runningcommentary.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=220&highlight=utmb
Now that really would make a good book...