What is it like to be the type of person who runs?

“Why would you do that?” was my friend’s response to hearing that I want to run a marathon in April of 2025. We had done a single semester of track & field together back in high school, where I had 1. Been rejected from the cross-country squad because I was too slow during tryouts and 2. Consistently finished last in every single track meet after joining the sprinting squad instead. Both of us ended up leaving the team after one semester to focus on orchestra.

Fast-forward to today, I’ve been running consistently for about four years, having started during the COVID lockdown. Easy explanation: I do it because I love it. Boring explanation: I do it because it helps me stay healthy. Lukewarm explanation: I do it so I have something to small-talk about at work that isn’t too personal. Too personal explanation: I do it because I got off of antidepressants and I needed something to fill that void. Weird explanation: I do it because my favorite author wrote a running memoir and I wanted to feel closer to him.

When I was 14, I read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. He highlights how running supports his writing career by helping him with self-discipline and staying healthy. His simple explanation is the exact reason I was drawn to running as well. It seems like a life-enhancer-- something small to add in daily (or every other day) to help improve quality-of-life. It’s also a beautiful way to enjoy solitude. For my fellow internalizers out there, having a grounding, repetitive physical activity that lets your mind wander in a safe way can be a life-saver.

If you find it challenging to start a (scary) new hobby, it can be worth reading memoirs by people who do that thing, instead of guidebooks or manuals. We thrive on connection and empathy. Reading about someone else’s process, struggles, and journey can help inspire you and remind you that we’re all just people doing our best, and even the people you look up to feel daunted and confused by life in the same ways.

Sometimes there’s nothing driving me towards running besides the fact that I want to be someone who runs. I spent so long thinking about it, but after quitting the track & field team in high school, I didn’t run again until seven years later. That whole time I was thinking, “What is it like to be the type of person who runs?” I was dying to know the answer. Perhaps all you need to start a new habit is that stubborn curiosity. Because what is life if not asking a question then receiving an answer… trying then learning, trying then learning? In pursuit of the answer, during 2020, I put on my sneakers and started small, doing one (very slow) mile around the neighborhood every three days. Soon, I was doing two miles every other day. Then I did my first 5k in 2021, multiple 10ks throughout 2022, and my first half-marathon at the end of 2022. And I am (planning to, fingers crossed) going to attempt a full marathon in April 2025.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far. When you run you will get to see the trees holding up layers of fluffy snow in their thin arms. You will get to feel the sun’s rays hugging you. You will say hi to your neighbors and their kids taking an afternoon stroll. You will breathe in the first hints of spring. You might pass an older man smoking something strong. You will see a purple orange sunset. You will see big dogs and tiny dogs and oozing slugs and maybe even a cat in an astronaut bag carrier. You might catch two cardinals dancing in the middle of the street. You will feel connected, and wonderful, and grateful for your body and your knees and your feet and for every bird and cloud and mushroom.

All of a sudden, you find yourself waking up, doing your morning routine, making coffee, and you tune into something: your body is asking for a run. It’s the one thing that would make this morning even better. And you think, what? When did this happen? And it's a beautiful, full-circle kind of feeling, because you have become a person who wants to run.

This doesn’t have to apply solely to running, either. Whatever new hobby you’re considering, let this be an invitation to ask those questions, and to chase the answer wholeheartedly. Here are a few running memoirs from people who answer the question, “What is it like to be the type of person who runs?” And that really answer, “What is it like to be a person?”

--Darya, Hightstown Memorial Branch

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami; translated by Philip Gabri

ISBN 9780307269195

Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

ISBN 9780785297994

To the Gorge: Running, Grief, and Resilience & 460 Miles on the Pacific Crest Trail by Emily Halnon

ISBN 9781639366651

 

My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter, and a Ridiculous Plan by Tom Foreman

ISBN 9780399175473