I'm back. I think.

It's hard to believe that it's been August since I last posted. I suppose that was roughly when the term started. It's been a four months of teaching at full speed: class prep, grading, and the odd committee meeting (and when I say odd. . . .).

Still, over Thanksgiving I read a book that had me thinking I should start again. The book was What I Talk about When I Talk about Running by Haruki Murakami. It's a short book; I read it quickly over a couple of days. It's a memoir about Murakami's running life. He took up running when he began to write novels in his late twenties. He gave up his jazz club so that he could focus on running, and when he did so, he began to gain weight. Running became the solution. At the time of running he had posted well over twenty marathons, at about the rate of one a year, and a number of triatholons of various distances.

The interesting thing about it is how hard Murakami is on himself. His times still frustrate him. His aging body frustrates him. And his times are impressive, at any age. They aren't Olympic impressive, but he's obviously a solid athlete, as well as an award winning novelist. The book is simply written, but compelling somehow; perhaps it is because--even though he doesn't talk about traditionally 'personal' subjects--the book feels so personal because Murakami feels that running is so personally important to him.

I am neither the athlete nor the writer that Murakami is, but I did relate to him on that level. Even the title seems to get at something. Running--and other distance athletic activities--are odd, and hard to understand for those who have no interest in doing them. And yet it has--in the past few years--become incredibly important to me personally as well, for reasons that I can't quite describe to myself. Like Murakami I became serious about it in my late twenties. In my case it was when I was beginning the process of writing my Ph.D dissertation, which was a marathon in of itself. My goal was to finish a marathon before I defended my dissertation, and I met that goal with about nine months to go.

I haven't raced since May. I've been too busy with school and other act ivies. I've still been running; I could run a reasonably competent half on short notice I think. Still, I've been thinking that it's time to start planning for another half and a full in the spring, in no small part because of Murakami's book.