3 Review(s)

In 1982, Murakami started jogging to stay in shape after selling his jazz bar so he could focus on writing. He finished a solo course from Athens to Marathon a year later, and today, after competing in hundreds of similar events as well as triathlons and publishing twelve critically acclaimed books, he considers the impact that the sport has had on his life and, more significantly, on his writing. This candid memoir, which covers his four-month training for the 2005 New York City Marathon, is equal parts training log, travelogue, and reflection. It takes us to locations like Tokyo's Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, and the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him.