Reflections on running

To Be A Runner
How Racing Up Mountains, Running with the Bulls, or Just Taking On a 5-K Makes You a Better Person (and the World a Better Place)

by Martin Dugard

Totally elevating. Even his descriptions of bloody, chafing thighs fail to demotivate.  He talks of his own running, his coaching, and his racing with equal intensity.  This is clearly a runner who runs because...well...because he runs.

He's run many marathons and other races in his life, but at some point he realized it was time to reconsider--
When would crossing the finish line of yet another superhuman test of endurance make me feel complete?  A still, small voice in my head reminded me that the time I'd been happiest in my athletic life was when I was just a runner. Just a guy who laced up his shoes and ran because it felt good. That was enough.

The thought didn't lead him to disparage running the marathon or to discourage his young runners from own their dreams. But it was probably the reason he wrote this book--to reflect on what running really meant and share that with the world.  The many thoughts and observations scattered through this book that will make me pick it up again and again.  If for no other reason, just to get a different perspective when things look grim.