HARUKI MURAKAMI

I arrived early for the scheduled Happy Feet get together in Greenbelt. To while away the time, I decided to indulge in one of my favorite past time – browsing at available titles in bookstores. I asked the sales lady at the National Book Store what section the books by Murakami are located.

When I looked at the available titles, I saw the book I have been looking for: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and bought it.

The following day, I had a good though very wet 10 K Eco Dash run. And when I went home. what better way to relax than to read Murakami’s book.

As I read, I found out that there were a lot of things that I can relate to. The book is a memoir about the author’s obsessions with running and writing.

Murakami is a person who likes to be by himself. He likes reading books on his own or concentrating on listening to music. The hour or so he spends running, maintaining his own silent, private time is important to help him keep his mental well being.

Like Murakami, I too enjoy the solitude that I find in running. It is like running in a void. Not in a vacuum, of course, since random thoughts occur. But always, they are subordinate to that void.

Once he interviewed Olympic Runner, Toshihiko Seko, and asked if he as a runner ever feel like he’d rather not run today, like he doesn’t feel like running, and he’d rather sleep in?

Seko answere “Of course. All the time!”

It sounds so familiar. The Love/Hate relationship that most of us have with running.

Murakami talked about his mantra as he run from Athens to Marathon:

“No- forget about beer. And forget about the run. Forget about the wind… Just focus on moving my feet forward, one after the other. That’s the only thing that matters.”

A very familiar feeling to me. Especially on long runs, on those long uphill runs.

Murakami’s basic rule when training is never take two days off in a row. If you increase the amount of work your muscles have to endure step by step, they learn to take it and gradually grow stronger.

However, if you halt the load for a few days, the muscles relax and cancel the memory of all that hard work. Then you have to repeat the whole journey from the very beginning.

This is a nice tip to keep in mind.

Murakami want to be remembered thus:

“HARUKI MURAKAMI

Writer and Runner

At Least He Never Walked”

How I wish I can say the same.