2014 Book #5: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Shelf it.
“Pain is inevitable (in running). Suffering is optional. 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. This pretty much sums up the most important aspect of marathon running.”
Murakami goes on to write…
“It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get that feeling, through this process, of really being alive.”
From these opening salvo in Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I am immediately hooked. It is only recently that I learned that my (most recent) favourite author is in fact a running nut! This novel was written in 2005. And up to that point in time, Murakami has been running for 23 years, finished 23 marathons at one per year, and when bored with running, he picked up triathlons! Did I say he was a fitness freak?
Running is a lonely sport. That much I now know. And it is a mental sport. The longer the run, the harder in the head. It is very boring indeed, to the non-runner at heart that is. A real runner is a loner. Running is an art form, I’ve read. I need to look into that deeper. I think there is a book about that. In the meantime,
I am learning more every day, as I enter headlong into this whole new world…
“Running day after day, bit by bit, I raise the bar, and by clearing each level I elevate myself. I am an ordinary runner, but that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday...In long-distance running, the only opponent you have to bet is yourself, the way you used to be.”
Murakami does not only talk about running when he talks about running. He also talks about his writing. In this book he explains his writing methods and where his quirky characters come from. His characters are sooo left of center. They are, apparently, based on real people, from folk that walk into his jazz club/bar. Murakami owned a jazz bar for a decade back in the 80s (or was it the 70s?). Quite unheard of in his small Japanese township. But he worked very hard and made a success of it. He paid all his debts and was earning enough at the end of 10 years. He welcomed customers from all walks of life into that bar. For how can he throw a customer away? He reckoned that if he made 1 of every 10 customer happy then he gets to keep the club in business. Because that one happy customer becomes a repeat customer.
Similarly, the same can be applied to readers of his books. He only has to please 1 in every 10. And that one will become a fan and will keep buying all his books, time and time again. If you think about it, the same model can be applied to all kinds of audience or customer for your product or service!
His running and his writings are intertwined. A wild imagination + long hours of total running silence (apart from music in his ears) + exposure to different characters = BESTSELLERS! The media in Japan commented that “Mr Murakami, you are so fit and healthy, aren’t you concerned you will run out of stories?”. Murakami certainly does not fit the stereotypical image of a slighty deranged, unshaven, unhealthy, lives-in-basement kind of a writer.
But like most writers, Haruki Murakami is quite the introvert.
“When I am running I don’t have to talk to anybody and don’t have to listen to anybody. This is a part of my day I can’t do without.”
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