Source: unsplash / @worldsofmaru Running with others has its appeal. Early in my running life, I joined one of the first running groups in my country, years before it became a fad. It was energising, social and motivating. At one point, we had a hundred people joining us in our Sunday morning runs. That group…

There is nothing particularly unusual about how I started running. I had just begun living on my own, around twenty years ago. It was a period of newfound freedom, with fewer constraints and more time to myself, more willingness to explore new hobbies, new places, set new life rhythms. At some point, without much thought,…

In the previous posts I have described running as, more or less, a habit: something ordinary, sometimes uninspiring, often repeated without much thought. For the busy, tired runners this blog is addressed to, this is to a large extent true. But it does not fully explain why one continues to do it. Habit alone feels…

Running is often presented as more than a physical activity. It is described as a mindset, sometimes even as a philosophy. I do not disagree with that. What I find less convincing is the idea that this philosophy is a unified one. I have previously referred to “running culture” (even in this blog) as if…

In my previous posts I talked about habit, averageness and routine; running that survives without passions. There is something that I did not mention: most runs are simply unremarkable. They do not inspire, transform or impress. They happen, and then they fade from memory. You go out, you run, you return. They definitely aren’t posted…

Source: unsplash / @shadrinaizzati In the last post, I argued that you don’t need to love running to keep running. That idea is comforting, but it raises a more practical question: how do you keep running when life gets in the way? This post is about how running survives ordinary, crowded lives. “Life is what…