What I Talk About When I Talk About Running : A Memoir by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Vintage)

In 2007, Japanese Nobel Prize nominee Haruki Murakami wrote a nonfiction book about running and writing. It was originally published as [走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること (Hashiru koto ni tsuite Kataru toki ni Boku no Kataru Koto] which translates to What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and published by Bungei Shunju. The English version was published in 2009 and was translated by Japanologist, Philip Gabriel. The title was taken from a short-story collection by one of Murakami’s favorite writers - Raymond Carver. He was given permission by Carver’s widow, Tess Gallagher, to use the title in this way. 

In this collection of essays, which Murakami wrote between August of 2005 to October of 2006, as he was training for the New York City Marathon, he writes about what running has meant to him as a person. He says it’s “Just a book in which I ponder various things and think aloud”. Murakami says this isn’t a book about his philosophy, it’s more a book about life lessons he learned by running. 

Murakami had the idea of writing a book about running ten years previously but it wasn’t until he read an article in the International Herald Tribune when he came across an article about running a full marathon. Famous marathon runners were asked by different interviewers what goes on in their head when they are running. Do they have a special mantra that keeps them going to complete the race? Murakami thought their answers were interesting and profound. 

The mantra that one runner mentioned stuck in Murakami’s head. The runner replied that it was a mantra his older brother said - “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” Murakami has this to say about the mantra. “Say you’re running and you start to think, Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The hurt part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand any more is up to the runner himself”. 

Although writing is Murakami’s profession, he says he became a serious runner after moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts earlier in the year. His idea of running seriously means he runs an average of thirty-six miles a week. “In other words, six miles a day, six days a week”. “So at thirty-six miles per week, I cover 156 miles every month, which for me is my standard for serious running”. 

Murakami says since he’s become a serious runner, he has run one full marathon every year for the past twenty plus years. He trains in whatever city his schedule takes him, be it in Hawaii, Japan, or his current home of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has also expanded his interest beyond running and has participated in triathlons as well and talks about readjusting his training for the cycling and swimming portions of the event. He is also aware that he is not as young as he once used to be and accepts the fact that it is near impossible to improve his times on subsequent marathons or triathlons. 

I’m no runner, nor am I a huge fan of Murakami’s works, although I have read a number of his novels. Even if you are not a runner and are not a big fan of Haruki Murakami, his easy to read journal on training for the New York City Marathon is interesting and introspective. It makes you think about your own thoughts when you are doing something that completely absorbs your mind. I do exercise everyday but instead of thinking about my inner thoughts, I usually listen to music or watch a movie while working out on a treadmill. So far I haven't had any epiphanies while exercising but you never know…. ~Ernie Hoyt