#christophermcdougall

A very happy publication day to Langdon Hammer, Christopher McDougall and Steven Millhauser!

James Merrill by Langdon Hammer

Langdon Hammer has given us the first biography of the poet James Merrill (1926–95), whose life is surely one of the most fascinating in American literature. Merrill was born to high privilege and high expectations as the son of Charles Merrill, the charismatic cofounder of the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, and Hellen Ingram, a muse, ally, and antagonist throughout her son’s life. Wounded by his parents’ bitter divorce, he was the child of a broken home, looking for repair in poetry and love. This is the story of a young man escaping, yet also reenacting, the energies and obsessions of those powerful parents. It is the story of a gay man inventing his identity against the grain of American society during the eras of the closet, gay liberation, and AIDS. Above all, it is the story of a brilliantly gifted, fiercely dedicated poet working every day to turn his life into art. 

Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougall

The best-selling author of Born to Run now travels to the Mediterranean, where he discovers that the secrets of ancient Greek heroes are still alive and well on the island of Crete, and ready to be unleashed in the muscles and minds of casual athletes and aspiring heroes everywhere. 

Voices in the Night by Steven Millhauser

when i told my brother that i was thinking of training for a marathon, he immediately told me that i should read Born To Run, by Christopher McDougall.  i know i'm probably supposed to underline that title instead of italicize it but why the hell doesn't tumblr let me underline??  

sidebar: i'm fucking terrible at tumblr.  yesterday i had to ask 2 different friends like 17 questions about how to do stuff on here.  i think i'm maybe the dumbest smart person that i know.

anyway, my brother is a pretty cool cat, so i definitely took his recommendation and ran out to get the book after work last night.  i read a bit before bed, and i'm only about 20 pages in, but it's great so far.  so glad i'm reading it because it is definitely getting me into the mood to start this crazy journey.

i posted a quote below this post that i really loved.  here it is again:

"there's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure.  we run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time."

i've never been a runner--i've been an athlete my entire life, and grew up playing competitive sports like soccer, tennis, and basketball--but i have never particularly loved running.  i definitely wouldn't go so far as to say i hate running, but i've never been the person who looked forward to it, really.  i guess it's really just that i've never had a relationship with running.  it was just something i had to do during soccer practice as a warm-up, or as conditioning/fitness training, or as a punishment.  so when i read that quote and really starting thinking about how true it is... i started to feel my mind re-aligning itself with the thought of running.

for me, like i said, running has always just been an ancillary task.  it was what i HAD to do before i could do what i really wanted to do, which was play the sport.  while i always understood the importance of a warm-up run before a game or practice, it was always just something that annoyed me.  come on, i want to be kicking the ball already.  and when it came to running as conditioning during pre-season or in the off-season, i always just thought it was boring, and there was a certain resentment and dread attached to it.  i don't even really know why.  i was in such good shape back then that it's not like it was really that hard or physically painful.  it just always felt like something that was necessary but tedious.  i never even considered the idea that i could enjoy doing it.

i feel like i'm describing this in a way that's much less elegant than how it feels in my mind... but basically i have this new kind of excitement about this entire experience.  i really look forward to exploring what running can be to me, and what it can mean to me.  and let's just hope that what it ends up being/meaning to me... is not absolute torture/misery.

274 days until race day!

"There are two goddesses in your heart. The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wisdom will become jealous, and follow you. Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you'll get more than you ever imagined."

Even if you're not a runner, read this book! As an avid runner, I tend to shy away from reading about it. Sure, I love it and do it almost every day, but that doesn't necessary mean I want to think about running all the time. The same goes for my profession: I already spend more time at my ad agency than I care to during the week; why would I want to spend my free time watching a show about it? Balance is everything. 

My friend/coworker is an enthusiastic runner and lent me "Born to Run" to take on a beach vacation. I've passed by the book several times at the store, picking it up, flipping through it casually, but never committing. Fine, I'll take the book along to Mexico, but I'll bring magazine back-ups. I read the first 20 pages while we were still on the tarmac - I was hooked. This is not another mundane tale of someone's thoughts on distance running and their favorite shoe brand. The story line bobs and weaves across several spectrums of mankind, including the history of a nearly extinct tribe of ultra runners in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. (Did you even know there was a nearly extinct tribe of people living in the Copper Canyons of Mexico?)

The author Christopher McDougall does a wonderful job weaving several plot lines into one fascinating 282-page running manifesto. This book inspired me to try barefoot running shoes (I highly recommend working them into your routine) and has re-energized my love for the sport. I even signed myself up to run a second marathon this fall, after swearing up and down I'd never do another.