ASF-2011-01

www.AdkSports.com JANUARY 2011 9
RUNNING AND WALKING
Reading on the Run
by Laura Clark
I write entirely to find out what I’m
thinking, what I’m looking at, what I
see, and what it means. -Joan Didion
hile running is basically a solitary
Wsport, at some point even the loneliest
long distance runner feels the need
for a social life. Enter the casual running
group, Internet blog and cozy bookstore.
Joan Didion, essayist and early proponent
of creative nonfiction, was correct: writing
validates experience.
But if those temptingly bound blankpaged
journals or the latest blog site fills
you with more terror than a stint of public
speaking, do not despair. While we are all,
as the running philosopher George Sheehan
was wont to exclaim, “an experiment of
one,” there is nevertheless a certain commonality
of experience. Sample some of the
books reviewed below and discover not only
the latest training suggestions, but your own
below-the-surface emotions.
Outstripping all competitors is
Christopher McDougall’s epic “Born to
Run,” which broke the tape on the New
York Times Best Seller List, advanced to the
prestigious Notable Books Council Awards,
and spawned a minimalist shoe revolution
that basically overhauled the inventory of
major shoe distributors. Superbly layered,
this offering details the author’s compelling
journey through cutting edge science to the
desolate Copper Canyons, the last stand of
the Tarahumara – an ancient tribe of super
athletes. Along the way Christopher’s quest
detours back and forth across time and
space to the Western States Endurance Run,
a persistence running hunt with Bushmen,
and Bill Bowerman’s iconic waffle iron.
While “Born to Run” is undoubtedly a
tough act to follow, a sampling of three of
the latest training tomes shortcut past the
usual advice and into a New Age myth-busting
frame of mind. In “The Runner’s Body:
How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help
You Run Stronger, Longer and Faster,” PhDs
Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas advance
beyond Dr. Noakes compendium, “The Lore
of Running,” braving the final frontier in the
mind over matter debate.
Coach Matt Fitzgerald in “The Runner’s
Edge: High-Tech Training for Peak Performance”
takes us to the next level of heart rate
monitor ownership, well beyond the basic
stopwatch application where most of us stagnate,
onto the fascinating world of data analysis.
Bring on those charts and graphs!
After all of that math, the prolific Matt
Fitzgerald’s “Racing Weight” is a snap with
its Diet Quality Score Chart, which requires
a preschooler’s ability to count from one to
two and back again. Best of all, Matt forgives
a holiday weight gain below eight-percent
of optimal training weight. No more January
diets – for some of us, at least!
Information, however, can only take
you so far. Knowing what we should do is a
far cry from actually doing it. This is where
inspirational reading can pull you out of the
doldrums and back into your running shoes
even if it is dark and frigid outside. Like the
proverbial mailman, neither weather nor a
NYC transit strike could keep firefighter Matt
Long from his appointed rounds – until he
got crushed by a 20-ton bus making an illegal
turn. In “The Long Run: A New York City
Firefighter’s Triumphant Comeback from
Crash Victim to Elite Athlete,” his physical
and mental road to recovery – including finishing
the 2009 Ironman Lake Placid – will
make your run seem the privilege it truly is.
Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes, “To every life
there is a season,” so it goes with athletes.
Overwhelmed moms often feel that the 24/7
demands of motherhood make the simple
act of going for a run rival the logistics of
an Ironman event. Enter freelancers Dimity
McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea and their
“Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving
– and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity”
with practical, humorous insights on how to
get the job done. A perfect baby shower gift to
accompany that jogging stroller, a revelation
to husbands everywhere, and a vision of the
marathon at the end of the changing table…
Midlife, Rachel Toor in “Personal
Record: A Love Affair with Running” details
her journey from intellectual couch potato
to competitor to dater on the run to best
friend and pacer. “The pay is great: a thank
you and a kiss… are much more compelling
than a PR or a Shiny Metal Object.”
And then there are the baby boomers,
now on their downhill descent toward old
age. But that doesn’t have to mean falls and
infirmities unless the tumbles are taken on
the trail and the infirmities have to do with
sports injuries. In “Second Wind: The Rise
of the Ageless Athlete,” Lee Bergquist profiles
70- and 80-year-old role models, demonstrating
that despite the inroads of time,
the human body still needs to be pushed
to its true limit, whatever that particular
threshold may be.
While running is fun, those who do so
without a break tend to get injured. Several
recent offerings might just inspire you to
take a more relaxed approach. Read “High
Peaks: A History of Hiking the Adirondacks
from Noah to Neoprene” and you will marvel
at Tim Rowland’s irreverent parade of
colorful guides, hermits and entrepreneurs,
grand hotels and cutthroat lumbering, all
coexisting as part of the public lands and
private holdings patchwork that is the
Adirondacks. While not a runner per se,
Tim definitely possesses a runner’s mentality
as he treasure maps his way to a 72-hour
summit of Allen Mountain shortly after
Hurricane Floyd chainsawed through.
Getting down to business, Russell Dunn
and Barbara Delaney’s latest offering is
“Adirondack Trails with Tales: History
Hikes through the Adirondack Park and
the Lake George, Lake Champlain and
Mohawk Valley Regions.” While you may
have run Prospect Mountain’s 5.6-mile
uphill road race, chances are you didn’t
know that the trail crossing the memorial
highway was constructed along the path of
a funicular railroad that transported tourists
to the now defunct Prospect Mountain
House. While nature is its own reward, historical
enhancement definitely adds to the
experience.
Who knows? After some armchair coaching
and inspiration, you too, might feel compelled
to jot down a few memories. Or at
least open your running log once again.
Laura Clark (lclark@sals.edu) of Saratoga
Springs is an avid trail runner, snowshoer and
cross-country skier. She is a child’s librarian at
the Saratoga Springs Public Library.
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