Haruki Murakami - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I recently finished Haruki Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. I actually read his memoir before having read any of his other more famous works. I guess what got me interested in his story was that he decided one day to write a novel. Now he didn't decide after hours of deliberation, weighing the pros and cons and deciding what he would need to accomplish the feat. No, his realization came at a baseball stadium in Japan and the exact time came around the time when an American hit a double late in the game. And as epiphanies go, he decided right then and there that he had to write a novel. So that night he went home and wrote for an hour. And the next four months he wrote an hour a night after work until he had something resembling a short novel. He entered it into a writing contest and the rest was history. The fact that he worked in a jazz/coffee bar for ten years before deciding one day to write a novel also caught my attention. So I read his book about running or rather what he talks about when he talks about running. He started running around the same time as well. Perhaps at the age of 30-32 and he went on to run most everyday eventually getting up to marathon and occasionally ultra-marathon status.

            I've never been much of a runner. I was always consistent but more consistently slow than fast, but what I liked about this book is how he equates his state of mind when he writes to this state of mind when he's running. There's a determination and focus that I'm finding most writers must have. Just as must runners must be focused and determined. There's a certain training regimen that both writers and runners must have to condition their mind and bodies to do these two grueling tasks day in and day out. It's interesting, though, because writing is extremely unhealthy. Right now I'm hunched over typing and if I keep this up I might not move the slightest for hours at a time all the while I'm in my head trying to pull out words. Some could argue that the best writers are extremely flawed individuals who are driven to drink(think Bukowski) and other unhealthy activities. And then there's running which I'm fairly certain is the definition of a healthy endeavor. Actually the idea of Charles Bukowski jogging each morning before he writes is a pretty funny image.

So anyways, I think it's interesting that Murakami balances one unhealthy activity with a healthy one. The balance of the two, I would imagine, keeps his mind and body trained. Ok, so I don't jog and I barely write but the memoir was good and I liked a lot of his ideas on writing and running. He described his state of mind when running, at one point he runs an ultra marathon (62 or so miles), and through his mantra (Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional) and also through the ability to clear his mind, to actually think about nothing, having a void of thought as it were, with only the physical motion of putting one foot in front with eyes set straight ahead, and through this training of his mind and body to upstand the rigors, Murakami has kept on writing and running day in and day out for twenty years.