New Book Review: "Running Toward Life"
New book review for Running Toward Life: Finding Community and Wisdom in the Distances We Run, by John Trent, Broad Book Press, 2023:
Copy provided by Amazon.
Trent mentions in his introduction that his hope in writing this book is to speak to various phases of one's running life, so that readers will walk away with a similar sense of understanding as to who they are and what is important to them. These phases, which correspond to the three parts of this book, are "Finding Your Mentors", "Choosing Your Companions", and "Overcoming Your Challenges". He goes on to explain that "although these stories are highly personal, they contain some of the larger truths that we all experience in our lives. That we are constantly learning and evolving. That as time passes and we accrue thousands of hard-earned miles on the trails, there are important lessons that are equally hard-earned and can stick with us if we allow them to live on. And that as we gain these experiences, we come to view them more like a way station and not a final destination, where we have the opportunity to continually ask ourselves important questions that help us grow and learn. No matter what distance of ultra we run, we come to understand that whenever we go the distance, it isn't just the number of miles that we have run that matter. As I found out in 1995, you can run an ultra distance that comes on the periphery of something larger and it may not ever be remembered – except by you. Running ultras is a way of running toward what matters most: understanding and finding a greater meaning in life that we live. It helps us run toward our lives."