On running

When I read Nicholas Thompson's essay in The Atlantic titled, Why I run, it brought to mind Ian Leslie's reflections on aging, in which Leslie said, "I sometimes hear people criticise fitness fanatics by saying they’re trying to deny mortality. Well, no shit - that’s the whole game. We’re cheating entropy from the moment we’re born. Every organism, including the one which is you, is a revolt - an organised rebellion - against the universe’s fundamental drive towards disorder. When you’re up against an enemy this implacable, I say it’s OK to cheat. In fact it’s heroic. The universe wants us to be dust and will eventually get the job done. Staying vital for as long as we can is a magnificently perverse act of resistance."

Leslie's sentiment is at the heart of why Thompson runs marathons. Thompson, who is the CEO of the Atlantic Magazine, was introduced to running by his father. Thompson talks about his dad as someone he at once wanted to emulate, whilst not wanting to be like him. Prone to chaos, Thompson's father was a complicated and troubled man. As a child and young man, Thompson used to run with him, but his father stopped running at 40, at which point Thompson's father's life went into a negative spiral. But Thompson continued to run, seeing it as a key to avoiding a similar fate as his father. "Running had helped him hold things together until middle age. Then he had stopped. I had run with him for years, and I was still competing in marathons. I was going to keep on running, and I was going to keep doing it well." Says Thompson in the article adapted from his book, The Running Ground: A father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports.

Runnning becomes the anchor through the vicissitudes of Thompson's life. Thompson runs through job losses and financial triumphs, ill health and several births. When running is going right, the rest of his life seemed to follow. Running connects him to his father, but he also derives vital lessons from it. Worth the time if, like me, you're interested in what it means to run and be a runner.

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