ACROSS THE MILES O
ur sport seems mindless only to people who never run long enough for any
thought to form other than, ‘When can I stop running?’ But the only way to succeed as a long-distance runner is to do it mind- fully, to be aware of the body and the world it is moving through. I think about my motion and my
breathing, my muscles and their state of agitation or stress or relaxation. I note my surroundings—the downward slope I would never notice driving this street, the hawk’s nest I would never see for lack of looking up, the fi gure in a window caught in a solitary moment of their own. I think about the true meaning of distance—about the learning that comes from running a mile in your own shoes.
From T e Incomplete Book of Running, by Peter Sagal.
I’ve met people who say they don’t run, but they walk, ride bikes, hike in the woods. Those people are getting many of the same benefits as running.
We didn’t evolve these extraordinary brains and self-consciousness so we could outsource our thinking. Anybody who has done creative work knows what’s needed to do that is uninterrupted thought.
What can non-runners take
away from your book? Go outside. We weren’t meant to spend so much time in offi ces. Take the headphones off , move, use your body. Look at little kids in playgrounds—they’re just running around before getting trained into games. We forget that. We spend so much time in our heads reading, watching screens. I’ve met people who say they don’t run, but they walk, ride bikes, hike in the woods. T ose people are getting many of the same benefi ts as running.
Of the many anecdotes you cite about bonding with others through running, which one was the most gratifying?
Probably when I ran with William Greer, who I didn’t even know 24 hours before we ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, and by the end of that day we were friends forever because of all we went through together. [Greer is visually impaired and Sagal was his volunteer guide during the race.] We’re still in touch; we sometimes run together. He wouldn’t have fi nished if I wasn’t helping him and I wouldn’t have fi nished if he wasn’t helping me.
Randy Kambic is a freelance writer and editor, in Estero, Florida.
May 2019 27
photo by Kyle Cassidy
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