Tag: running

Book Review | North by Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek

Posted June 15, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

North by Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek

From the author of the bestseller Eat and Run , a thrilling memoir about his grueling, exhilarating, and immensely inspiring 46-day run to break the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.

Scott Jurek is one of the world’s best known and most beloved ultrarunners. Renowned for his remarkable endurance and speed, accomplished on a vegan diet, he’s finished first in nearly all of ultrarunning’s elite events over the course of his career. But after two decades of racing, training, speaking, and touring, Jurek felt an urgent need to discover something new about himself. He embarked on a wholly unique challenge, one that would force him to grow as a person and as an breaking the speed record for the Appalachian Trail.

North is the story of the 2,189-mile journey that nearly shattered him. When he set out in the spring of 2015, Jurek anticipated punishing terrain, forbidding weather, and inevitable injuries. He would have to run nearly 50 miles a day, every day, for almost seven weeks. He knew he would be pushing himself to the limit, that comfort and rest would be in short supply — but he couldn’t have imagined the physical and emotional toll the trip would exact, nor the rewards it would offer.

With his wife, Jenny, friends, and the kindness of strangers supporting him, Jurek ran, hiked, and stumbled his way north, one white blaze at a time. A stunning narrative of perseverance and personal transformation, North is a portrait of a man stripped bare on the most demanding and transcendent effort of his life. It will inspire runners and non-runners alike to keep striving for their personal best.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

The Reason

I went down a rabbit hole of running memoirs. I have many more on my TBR list!

The Quotes

“We often think we can’t go any farther and feel like we have nothing left to give, yet there is a hidden potential and strength in all of us, begging us to find it.”

“Out there in the wild, on a long journey, you hike your own hike, blaze your own trail, and only you can find what you’re looking for.”

“In the case of pain, perhaps the one we know hurts us less than the one we fear.”

“It was just numbers. I knew I could outrun numbers.”

The Narrator(s)

The authors, Scott and Jenny Jurek.

My Thoughts

I’m a beginner runner with the hopes of running a marathon one day, but I can unequivocally say that I have zero plans to ever run the Appalachian Trail, much less break a record running it. That’s why I read about it instead! I have a mixture of admiration and perplexity for the Jureks reading about this endeavor; I admire their spirit and ambition to take on something that requires you to push your body to such great lengths and show what the human body is capable of, and I’m also perplexed because I have zero drive and ambition to ever do something close to this, and I wonder about where this drive comes from. It’s just so amazing to me.

What I love about this book is the dual narration between Scott and Jenny Jurek; Scott is the one who ran the trail and broke the record, but he couldn’t have done it without Jenny’s moral, emotional, and physical support. I loved that we get both of them telling the story because we don’t celebrate the spouse behind the scenes often enough, and this book really showed how they were a team, both in marriage and with this achievement. As we read through the book, we also see the support they get from so many of their friends. I love seeing the kind of community that can come about from a group of like-minded people who love the outdoors and achieving greatness with their physical bodies.

I also love how self-aware and honest the Jureks are about their shortcomings and the mistakes they make throughout this journey. They don’t shy away from talking about times they were upset when things didn’t go well, or when they had needs that weren’t met, or when they sometimes handled interaction with fans badly. There were times Scott in particular came across as arrogant and single-minded when it came to achieving his goal, but honestly, this guy has a resume that entitles him to be just a little arrogant. He also acknowledges that you have to have a special kind of go-getter mindset to do the things he did, and I completely understand that! All in all, this was a great read, and highly motivating to me to get better as a runner.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Book Review | The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal

Posted June 12, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal

Peter Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and a popular columnist for Runner’s World , shares “commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you” (Susan Orlean).

On the verge of turning forty, Peter Sagal—brainiac Harvard grad, short bald Jew with a disposition towards heft, and a sedentary star of public radio—started running seriously. And much to his own surprise, he kept going, faster and further, running fourteen marathons and logging tens of thousands of miles on roads, sidewalks, paths, and trails all over the United States and the world, including the 2013 Boston Marathon, where he crossed the finish line moments before the bombings.

In The Incomplete Book of Running , Sagal reflects on the trails, tracks, and routes he’s traveled, from the humorous absurdity of running charity races in his underwear—in St. Louis, in February—or attempting to “quiet his colon” on runs around his neighborhood—to the experience of running as a guide to visually impaired runners, and the triumphant post-bombing running of the Boston Marathon in 2014. With humor and humanity, Sagal also writes about the emotional experience of running, body image, the similarities between endurance sports and sadomasochism, the legacy of running as passed down from parent to child, and the odd but extraordinary bonds created between strangers and friends. The result is “a brilliant book about running…What Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity” (P.J. O’Rourke).

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

The Reason

I’m a beginner runner and trying to get myself motivated by reading memoirs about running. I loved Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and I went looking for more.

The Quotes

“Perhaps you would like to start running. You never have tried before, or you did and you hated it, and now you wonder how to begin moving in a way that will keep you going. Get up. Start. Go. Move. Take a rusty first step, like the Tin Man. You will squeak. Go.”

“We simply accept each other as we are, for in any other direction lies madness.”

“You step outside, because real running is done outside, dammit, in the open air, where the endorphins hide.”

“I had always believed that suffering was a requirement for anything worthwhile: art, educational success, professional achievement, marriage, parenthood. On this day, I had found another way, though it had taken thousands of miles to get here.”

The Narrator(s)

The author himself, Peter Sagal.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book! I love the author’s humor, and the reference of this book’s title and cover to The Complete Book of Running by James Fixx. It was interesting reading about the author’s experience running at the Boston Marathon Bombing event, and I loved learning more about being a guide for blind runners. Not that I would qualify at the current level I’m at, but maybe someday.

There were parts of the book I didn’t like and couldn’t relate to. He talks about his divorce in a way that makes me feel that maybe he was the problem, which to be fair, we’re all allowed to make mistakes and grow from them, but there didn’t seem to be any self-reflection about it. However, I came for the running parts, and I enjoyed reading about the running parts. I wish there were more running parts!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Book Review | Start Where You Are: The Beginner’s 5K Running Guide for Women by Sabrina Pace-Humphreys

Posted May 25, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Start Where You Are: The Beginner’s 5K Running Guide for Women by Sabrina Pace-Humphreys

A beginner’s guide to running for women. It challenges misconceptions and offers a positive and motivating guide to get you started.

Start Where You Are is a guide for women who are looking to run up to 5k distance. Whether you are at the start of your running journey, or resuming running after a break, Sabrina Pace-Humphreys has all the advice you need to get going.

In 2009 a GP recommended Sabrina try running to manage her post-natal depression. It transformed her life and she hasn’t stopped since. She is now a UK Athletics qualified Leader in Running Fitness, a Coach in Running Fitness and a qualified personal trainer with a passion for helping other women, wherever they are in their running journeys.

Sabrina offers motivational support, technique guidance, practical advice and strength and conditioning exercises to help complement your training. You can also find real-life runner testimonies and valuable tips about how to run during menopause, fueling and hydration, menstrual cycles, common injuries, how to run safely at night, finding the running community for you – and so much more.

Above all, this audiobook strips back the experience to the fundamentals – instilling freedom and finding joy in movement – making it the perfect starting point for all women, irrespective of age or running experience.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #41: A guide to…)

The Reason

I came across this book while browsing in my local library and since I’ve started running, I thought I could learn something.

My Thoughts

As an ignorant beginner runner, there were a lot of things I got out of this book. I won’t be following along with the program laid out in the book because I’ve already been running for a while, but a lot of the advice in the book was still very helpful to me and in fact, I feel like I wouldn’t have understood some of the things the author shared if I hadn’t already been running and had come across some of those issues.

In my case, the advice about running techniques, cadence, gait, and nutrition were particularly helpful. I’ve switched up my posture and arm movements in my recent runs, and I’ve also been focusing more on how my body feels rather than what my smartwatch logs. Some of the warm-up exercises in the book has also been added to my previously sparser warm-up routine.

It’s notable that this book is aimed towards an audience of women runners; there are chapters that talk about running on periods, menopause, and how to keep yourself safe as a woman running on your own. All things that women need to take into account as compared to male runners. As the book states; women are not small men, and so many sporty advice and information have been based upon male bodies, capabilities, and needs, and aren’t necessarily applicable towards female bodies. We have a long way to go but I’m glad this book is available for women runners.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

Tags: , , , ,

Book Review | What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Posted September 9, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing.

Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A

The Reason

I’m trying to motivate myself with running, and this book turned up while I was browsing. I didn’t realize who the author was until later.

The Quotes

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.”

“I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.”

“It doesn’t matter how old I get, but as long as I continue to live I’ll always discover something new about myself.”

“Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.”

The Narrator(s)

Ray Porter. He’s one of my personal GOATs!

My Thoughts

I have never read a single book Haruki Murakami has written although I’ve been curious because of how often people talk about his books. I picked up this book not because of the author, but because of the title – I am a new runner, not a very good one, but very interested in getting better at it. I was surprised when I realized who the author was, and even more surprised when I started reading and finding out how passionate he was about running.

It’s interesting to find out so much about an author whose works I had never read through a memoir about his passion for running and writing. It was interesting to find out that he basically became a writer by just one day deciding to write a novel and then promptly forgetting about it after he was finished. I love the way he talks about why he runs, how he trains, his determination and drive to get better and compete with himself. It is very inspiring for me as an aspiring runner, but also quite scary because I think I would severely injure myself if I went to the lengths he did.

Some of his values and beliefs with the way he lives his life resonates strongly for me, and others seem a little questionable, but either way, reading this book makes me want to reexamine my own values and beliefs about how I live my life, and how I want to move forward with my own running. I highly recommend this book for anyone who runs or who’s thinking about taking up running.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

Tags: , , , , ,