Stanfords Staff Selects: Books About Running

Feeling inspired by all those marathon runners? We’ve chosen some of our favourite books about running so you can put your feet up and have a marathon reading session.

Running Free by Richard Askwith

If you are less of a slave to the stopwatch and more about the thrill of being outside in nature with the wind in your hair, then this book is for you. Richard Askwith looks at the art of running by stripping off the heart rate monitor and forgetting about PBs. These days it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the technology surrounding us and this book offers encouragement to turn everything off, go off-road, tune in to your surroundings and see what your body is capable off.

50 Races to Run Before You Die by Tobias Mews

This is the essential guide to 50 of the best races around the world written by adventure athlete and journalist Tobias Mews who has run some of the toughest races in the world. The 50 races are split into three categories; Good for Beginners, Sucker for Punishment and Hard as Nails. Each race includes top tips, vital statistics, images, information, fascinating insights and enthusiastic first hand experiences from the author.

Running With The Kenyans by Adharanand Finn

After years of watching Kenyan athletes win the world’s biggest long-distance races, Adharanand Finn set out to discover what it was that made them so fast – and to see if he could keep up. Packing up his family, he moved to Iten, Kenya, the running capital of the world, and started investigating. Was it running barefoot to school, the food, the altitude, or something else? At the end of his journey he put his research to the test by running his first marathon, across the Kenyan plains.

 

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

Centred around Haruki Murakami’s four-month preparation for the 2005 New York Marathon, this is an autobiographical account of the trials and tribulations that a runner goes through both physically and mentally. “Most of what I know about writing fiction I learned by running every day,” writes Murakami and throughout this memoir the similarities and metaphors are often obvious but sometimes beautifully subtle. Murakami makes it clear from the first page that it is not a treatise on how to be healthy, and although it is about running, people who are not interested in running will adore it as it explores the human psyche in the famous Murakami voice that we all know and love from his works of fiction.

Your Pace or Mine? by Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson is a surprising cheerleader for the joys of running. Formerly a committed fitness-phobe, she became a marathon runner at 31, and ran her first 56-mile ultra marathon aged 41. And unlike many runners, Lisa’s not afraid to finish last – in fact, she’s done so in 20 of the 90-plus marathons she’s completed so far.

But this isn’t just Lisa’s story, it’s also that of the extraordinary people she’s met along the way – tutu-clad fun-runners, octogenarians, 250-mile ultrarunners – whose tales of loss and laughter are sure to inspire you just as much as they’ve inspired her. This book is for anyone who longs to experience the sense of connection and achievement that running has to offer, whether you’re a nervous novice or a seasoned marathoner dreaming of doing an ultra.

Britain’s Best Small Hills by Phoebe Smith

Although the London Marathon is pretty flat, hill drills are an important part of training for runners. Here Phoebe Smith takes us to 60 of the best hills in Britain. With Britain’s Best Small Hills, discover not only where to walk, but also curious facts and places, such as one of the best small hills with a cafe at the top, the hill where Captain Cook became inspired to travel, the only Wainwright the man himself couldn’t summit, and the Welsh peaks where the rocks that form Stonehenge come from.

This Girl Ran by Helen Croydon

Join Helen on her hilarious and soul-searching journey as she swaps a life of cocktail bars and dating for the challenges and exhilaration of triathlons, trail runs, obstacle races, long-distance cycles and ocean swims… and sets herself the seemingly impossible goal of qualifying as a Team GB triathlete.

 

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