EXCHANGE GIFT 2.0: Running is Flying Book

Regardless of age or creed, an exchange gift brings out the gleeful child in everyone. 

This is exactly what transpired a week ago when we had the Christmas party for our office and the highlight was the exchange gift.  I wished for a running book and a Fully Booked card is what I received from my boss RGV. I used it to acquire the book "Running is Flying". This is the 2nd time I got a running book in a Xmas exchange gift. The first was a Dean Karnazes book in Dec 2011.

This literary work by Paul E. Richardson, a runner,  is a compilation of 60 aphorisms, thoughts and meditations on the running life.  Adding color to the words are the illustrations created by veteran illustrator Paul Cox.  The intent of the book is to provide encouragement, levity and perspective to a sport that has a tendency to take itself a bit too seriously. 

A sample of this refreshing perspective is the title of the book itself.  To quote from the book - "When you walk, one foot is always on the ground.  When you run, most of the time you are actually airborne.  For example, a 6-foot-tall runner with feet about 1 foot long was found to take 1,250 steps while running 8-minute miles.  Thus, while covering 1 mile - 5,280 feet - he was in touch with the ground for 1,250 feet and airborne for 4,030 feet. Put another way, he was in the air 76 % of the time. So don't think of it as a 10-mile run. Think of it as 7 miles of flying."

Here is another one. It can explain why the Bicolano  Penguin's secret to being a very slow runner is its overweight status - "Running is weightlifting.  Every stride is a takeoff. The less you weigh, the easier you will fly.  In a marathon, an average runner takes about 35,000 steps, so an extra pound means lifting an extra 17.5 tons over the course of 26.2 miles.  For most runners, dropping 5 pounds can drop their 5-km time by a minute."

With astute observations like these 2 and 58 more, this book proves again that runners are good writers. And why is this?  It has something to do with the notion that racking up mile after mile is difficult, mind expanding and hypnotic - just like putting words down on a page.