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Running and Being: The Total Experience
Written by the late, beloved Dr. George Sheehan, Running & Being tells of the author's midlife return to the world of exercise, play, and competition, in which he found a world beyond sweat that proved to be a source of great revelation and personal growth. But Running & Being focuses more on life than it does, specifically, on running. It provides an outline for a lifetime program of fitness and joy, showing how the body helps determine our mental and spiritual energies. Drawing from the words and actions of the great athletes and thinkers throughout history, Dr. Sheehan ties it all together with his own philosophy on the importance of fitness and sport, as well as his knowledge of training, injury prevention, and race competition. Above all, he describes what it means to experience the oneness of body and mind, of self and the universe. In this, he argues, we have the power to discover the truth that makes men free.
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Published January 1, 1978
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About the author
George Sheehan
27 books45 followersDr. George A. Sheehan is best known for his books and writings about the sport of running. His book, Running & Being: The Total Experience, became a New York Times best seller. He was a track star in college, and later became a cardiologist like his father. He served as a doctor in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II on the destroyer USS Daly (DD-519). He married Mary Jane Fleming and they raised twelve children. He continued to write while struggling with prostate cancer. His last book, Going the Distance, was published shortly after his death.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
May 17, 2013
This book has a few nice quotes (most of which are not even the author's, just some famous philosophers) for which I give it one star... This book's author has a tone of arrogance the whole way through and frequently refers back to his staunch notion that one must have a specific body type to run, and if you don't, you need to do something else. He gets so detailed with these ideals of physiological perfection it kind of reminds me of Hitler's obsession with ideal Aryan measurements. Also, I am apparently doomed and should just give up tomorrow because my second toe is slightly longer than my great toe. Worst of all, Sheehan tries to temper his huge egotism with fake humility which I just can't tolerate. Mixed in with the lofty and scattered philosophizing was a bunch of seventies-era goofiness. Just horrible. As a side-note, the second I found out Sheehan was a cardiologist, I thought "oh, well no wonder he is so pompous".
March 5, 2017
I made it about halfway before I couldn't take it anymore. As a runner of over 20 years I have no idea what in Jesus' name he was talking about.
March 2, 2011
This was a hilarious book. Crazy over-the-top paeans to physical fitness as the ultimate virtue, wild claims about spirituality and its connection to running, and an insistence that every long-distance runner shares the same totally Asperger's traits as the author. I giggled all the way through.
That said, the sections that are actual memoirs of races or discussions of the nuts-and-bolts of running are solid - among other things, the author gives a dead-on description of hypercorticism while pointing out that there was no current science to explain "staleness" resulting from overtraining.
It's not a book I'd recommend - it's way too scattered, hyperbolic, and dated to really hang together - but it was a funny read.
That said, the sections that are actual memoirs of races or discussions of the nuts-and-bolts of running are solid - among other things, the author gives a dead-on description of hypercorticism while pointing out that there was no current science to explain "staleness" resulting from overtraining.
It's not a book I'd recommend - it's way too scattered, hyperbolic, and dated to really hang together - but it was a funny read.
July 26, 2016
I got about 20 pages into this before I bailed. I think it was somewhere around the part where Sheehan proclaimed that "Religion will always push irreligion to the wall." Sorry, no thank you. Keep your God talk away from my favorite pastime.
December 31, 2007
A Recommended to me by another Buddhist running writing librarian, this book really speaks to me about what it truly means to be a runner; Sheehan has a terrific sense of humour, but also understands the spiritual side of running. While certain elements might be slightly dated, this book is a MUST for all runners!
April 13, 2013
I read this book years ago in my running phase, and decided to dip into it again before I got rid of it. Dr. George Sheehan was an older runner, having found this outlet later in his life. He became a top runner, competing in many early Boston Marathons and numerous other races each year. But, more than being a runner, he was a philosopher. He utilized running to become a whole person, to play (which all people need to do to be joyful, to be content), to challenge himself and push into pain for the satisfaction of meeting a challenge and overcoming it. His essays are sometimes hymns of love and encouragement, and, occasionally, faith (although not a church-goer) as the meditation of a run breaks into revelation to the soul. I ended up reading it all, and appreciating that my simple and slow efforts to be an athlete, as much as I can be, is a valid drive, a worthwhile part of my being a human being seeking health, happiness, satisfaction, and grace.
August 21, 2017
Sheehan writes beautifully. He talks of crafting his words while writing and it's clear he is an eloquent perfectionist. That he takes time and not only attends to the substance of what he is writing but also to the form. That said, Sheehan's writing is all about Sheehan. Perhaps I should have realized this before picking the book up, but I had the distinct sense that he wasn't writing to me but rather to himself. Basically this is an amazing book if you are similar in views and temperament to him. I found that in many fundamental ways I am not.
Sheehan'a denigration of intellectual pursuits started to bother me. Just because his experience soured him to what is intellectual he is creating the fallacy that no form of play or game is intellectual in nature. In addition, Sheehan would be delighted that athletes are given scholarships at rates so much higher than intellectuals. Unfortunately the result he mentions of athletes modeling "virtue" seems far from present. Sheehan makes the mistake of confabulating discipline in one area with kindness. Nothing could be farther from the truth in my experience. It does seem true that the "great spectator events" do seem to capture the imagination of those watching but they become what Sheehan had earlier reviled. Spectators.
Sheehan says, "you must always be on the alert to find the giants, the writers, the thinkers, the saints, the athletes who speak to you." Maybe my problem is that you, Dr. Sheehan do not speak to me. He's one of those writers who makes sweeping pronouncements with no proof. He doesn't provide theories or opinions. He presents everything as a fact. He makes beautiful observations about the existential and theological meaning of running, but unless you can see through his narcissism it's hard to connect with this book.
Sheehan'a denigration of intellectual pursuits started to bother me. Just because his experience soured him to what is intellectual he is creating the fallacy that no form of play or game is intellectual in nature. In addition, Sheehan would be delighted that athletes are given scholarships at rates so much higher than intellectuals. Unfortunately the result he mentions of athletes modeling "virtue" seems far from present. Sheehan makes the mistake of confabulating discipline in one area with kindness. Nothing could be farther from the truth in my experience. It does seem true that the "great spectator events" do seem to capture the imagination of those watching but they become what Sheehan had earlier reviled. Spectators.
Sheehan says, "you must always be on the alert to find the giants, the writers, the thinkers, the saints, the athletes who speak to you." Maybe my problem is that you, Dr. Sheehan do not speak to me. He's one of those writers who makes sweeping pronouncements with no proof. He doesn't provide theories or opinions. He presents everything as a fact. He makes beautiful observations about the existential and theological meaning of running, but unless you can see through his narcissism it's hard to connect with this book.
Read
September 11, 2022I will read pretty much anything anyone wants to write about running. I love the subject. Parts of this book were inspiring and cool, and parts were off-the-wall bonkers (for instance, he is really into this theory that body types and personality types are intrinsically linked, which just seems weird). One thing I loved in this book is Sheehan's idea that everyone has a Sport, but that not everyone's Sport is Running. (I listened so I'm not sure but imagined these terms were capitalized.) You don't often see in books by running fanatics an acknowledgement that running is not for everyone, or if they do, they do it in a way that implies runners are the best type of human. This book does not have that attitude at all, I think because 1) it was written when running was still a niche/weird thing to do, and 2) it has the emphasis on "Being"--there is a joy in running for Sheehan that is for him a core piece of his life experience, and he wants people to experience that joy with/in their bodies, but knows running isn't the way there for everyone. This guy *loves* G. K. Chesterton, and the breadth of his references to writers surprised me in a fun way.
April 24, 2021
This book was a very thoughtful gift, and it's a very odd read.
Sheehan has some good, emotional, inspirational stuff about running Boston toward the end. But I'm surprised a lot of readers get there. I highlighted a lot, some of which are good quotes, or worth thinking about.
But there's so much oddity mixed with good. He mentions several times running works for him, but he's really talking about everyone having a sport or some sort of play. Which is great. But he also talks about how body type should decide what your activity is. And that it defines personality and life. He even has a section about how real athletes have stronger wrists, and work harder -- are "warriors" -- so you should always hire people with strong wrists. It's a weird form of pseudo-psychology.
I liked some stuff about the difference between being a fan (knower) and an athlete (thinker). About the unbreakable connection between our minds and our bodies. (Though Sheehan doesn't wrestle with how this affects people with disabilities.)
And this is an interesting passage: "I propose to you that human enterprises succeed because they are absolutely rational or because they are just as absolutely absurd. Science is a success, but then so is religion." (And Sheehan declares often he is of the "religion is actually the rational choice" camp.)
Ultimately, I can take away the message that if I want to get more from running, I need to give more. And that's always worth remembering.
Sheehan has some good, emotional, inspirational stuff about running Boston toward the end. But I'm surprised a lot of readers get there. I highlighted a lot, some of which are good quotes, or worth thinking about.
But there's so much oddity mixed with good. He mentions several times running works for him, but he's really talking about everyone having a sport or some sort of play. Which is great. But he also talks about how body type should decide what your activity is. And that it defines personality and life. He even has a section about how real athletes have stronger wrists, and work harder -- are "warriors" -- so you should always hire people with strong wrists. It's a weird form of pseudo-psychology.
I liked some stuff about the difference between being a fan (knower) and an athlete (thinker). About the unbreakable connection between our minds and our bodies. (Though Sheehan doesn't wrestle with how this affects people with disabilities.)
And this is an interesting passage: "I propose to you that human enterprises succeed because they are absolutely rational or because they are just as absolutely absurd. Science is a success, but then so is religion." (And Sheehan declares often he is of the "religion is actually the rational choice" camp.)
Ultimately, I can take away the message that if I want to get more from running, I need to give more. And that's always worth remembering.
January 6, 2015
I am two minds about this book. In small, infrequent doses, this book often provides inspiration and insights better than most of the chronicles of running and athleticism. Its unique premise -- running as a form of organic move within one's being -- stands out among shelves of running books mainly on techniques, Marathon lore, and biographic writings on sports professionals. It intends to be a philosophic rumination of both running and being. This is vastly different from running as a performance to demonstrate one's physical prowess (although the author did not shy from boasting on this front), a form of fitness, aesthetics of the appearance and body composition (which the author protested vehemently), nor as a tool for bodily health.
In small, infrequent sipping, this book is refreshing, like a drop of lemon bitters. Yet in large quantity, the tone of the writing -- confidence occasionally slips toward arrogance -- can be source of gritting irritation. That is why this book is on my "re-read-book" shelf even though I could not say that I hold admirations to the author - Not that he would cared anyway.
In small, infrequent sipping, this book is refreshing, like a drop of lemon bitters. Yet in large quantity, the tone of the writing -- confidence occasionally slips toward arrogance -- can be source of gritting irritation. That is why this book is on my "re-read-book" shelf even though I could not say that I hold admirations to the author - Not that he would cared anyway.
September 9, 2017
Overall, it was a really good philosophy book that focuses on running. Going into the book, I thought it was going to be a book about how to run better - it is a book about how Sheehan uses running to experience life and the afterlife. I enjoyed how he uses poets, philosophers, and theologians to all support whatever topic he was discussing.
"Like all pilgrimages, this one is filled with stops and starts, with peaks and valleys, with pains and pleasures. There are periods of depression and elation, times when I overflow with joy at this conjunction of action and contemplation. Other times when I am so tired I must stop and walk. But in that hour I know certainty. I know there is an answer to my odd union of animal and angel, my mysterious mixture of body and consciousness, my perplexing amalgam of material and spirit. And if for now that answer is only for the moment and only for me in my closest common denominator, me the runner, it is still enough. "
"Like all pilgrimages, this one is filled with stops and starts, with peaks and valleys, with pains and pleasures. There are periods of depression and elation, times when I overflow with joy at this conjunction of action and contemplation. Other times when I am so tired I must stop and walk. But in that hour I know certainty. I know there is an answer to my odd union of animal and angel, my mysterious mixture of body and consciousness, my perplexing amalgam of material and spirit. And if for now that answer is only for the moment and only for me in my closest common denominator, me the runner, it is still enough. "
February 26, 2025
The book is meh, it has tones of entitlement and arrogance that was hard to look past. The content was interesting and he explained a lot of desires to run on paper that I only wish I could.
He liked the mantra of “nobody knows why they do things and who they are and what they wanna do”
Then he proceeds to group people into two groups and of those groups define exactly how people are and why they do things?? Then follows it up with weird ass quotes. Just a confusing book consistently which made it hard to get into.
I really really wanted to like it as I know it was a pioneering book in running, but I just couldn’t.
Fav quote:
From the moment you become a spectator, everything is downhill. It is a life that ends before the cheering and the shouting die.
He liked the mantra of “nobody knows why they do things and who they are and what they wanna do”
Then he proceeds to group people into two groups and of those groups define exactly how people are and why they do things?? Then follows it up with weird ass quotes. Just a confusing book consistently which made it hard to get into.
I really really wanted to like it as I know it was a pioneering book in running, but I just couldn’t.
Fav quote:
From the moment you become a spectator, everything is downhill. It is a life that ends before the cheering and the shouting die.
May 9, 2023
Could not finish. So ridiculous with elitist commentary.
January 1, 2024
George Sheehan was still running marathons aged 70 and was a complete loner, but a happy one at that. He provides a number of wise rules for running, of which nearly all of them are transferable into life.
1. There are days in life and running when you will need to defend, show grit and determination. Defence is ultimately a matter of pride.
2. Offense is an art. It cannot be forced and is often spontaneous. To move from defence to offence once often experiences a turnover of fortune.
3. Often those who win the turnovers are those who stay true to themselves, and never try to be something that they are not. William Herbert Sheldon, American psychologist, once said, my aim is to develop every individual according to their best potential, protect them from false ambition, the desire to be someone they never can be and, more important, always seek the person that you are.
4. When it comes to rigor, the consuming challenge is actually attaining your true potential. Whatever you do, do it with might.
5. Gandhi believed you should only give up on what no longer has any attraction to you, or interferes with something you greatly desire. Often by going back to our routes and retracing your steps, you can find what you desire. How you treat, and work with your body is reflective of who you are.
6. The formula for greatness according to Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher, is the love of fate, the desire that nothing be different, not forward, not backward, not or all eternity.
7. The mile remains the classic distance because it calls for brains, rare judgment, speed, conditioning and courage.
8. Opposites can be attracted to each other, and the herd would have us marry for what we lack. Plato believed that we should marry for what we see in ourselves in others.
9. When choosing what to eat before running, stick to every day foods that you have, such a cereal.
10. When it comes to training, it is better to be undertrained than over trained, your body will always tell you how it feels.
11. An athlete by definition is someone “trying to get the most out of their genetic endowment, through training in their environment”.
When talking running tactics, always tailgate the running you want to beat, and then in the last 30 yards, kick hard and true and never look back. Going early, and leading the race is good for the ego, not so good for winning the race. PG 164. Leading a race is a lonely business, both scientifically because you have more air resistance, but psychologically, it is so much easier chasing the goal in front of you, instead of running fast enough to maintain your lead.
Some people think that guts is the sprint at the end of the race. It is not, it’s when you start the first hill, and you are in agony, but keep on going (like the drift at school). One must go through the discipline and guts at the beginning of a race to secure the freedom and victory at the end of a race.
1. There are days in life and running when you will need to defend, show grit and determination. Defence is ultimately a matter of pride.
2. Offense is an art. It cannot be forced and is often spontaneous. To move from defence to offence once often experiences a turnover of fortune.
3. Often those who win the turnovers are those who stay true to themselves, and never try to be something that they are not. William Herbert Sheldon, American psychologist, once said, my aim is to develop every individual according to their best potential, protect them from false ambition, the desire to be someone they never can be and, more important, always seek the person that you are.
4. When it comes to rigor, the consuming challenge is actually attaining your true potential. Whatever you do, do it with might.
5. Gandhi believed you should only give up on what no longer has any attraction to you, or interferes with something you greatly desire. Often by going back to our routes and retracing your steps, you can find what you desire. How you treat, and work with your body is reflective of who you are.
6. The formula for greatness according to Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher, is the love of fate, the desire that nothing be different, not forward, not backward, not or all eternity.
7. The mile remains the classic distance because it calls for brains, rare judgment, speed, conditioning and courage.
8. Opposites can be attracted to each other, and the herd would have us marry for what we lack. Plato believed that we should marry for what we see in ourselves in others.
9. When choosing what to eat before running, stick to every day foods that you have, such a cereal.
10. When it comes to training, it is better to be undertrained than over trained, your body will always tell you how it feels.
11. An athlete by definition is someone “trying to get the most out of their genetic endowment, through training in their environment”.
When talking running tactics, always tailgate the running you want to beat, and then in the last 30 yards, kick hard and true and never look back. Going early, and leading the race is good for the ego, not so good for winning the race. PG 164. Leading a race is a lonely business, both scientifically because you have more air resistance, but psychologically, it is so much easier chasing the goal in front of you, instead of running fast enough to maintain your lead.
Some people think that guts is the sprint at the end of the race. It is not, it’s when you start the first hill, and you are in agony, but keep on going (like the drift at school). One must go through the discipline and guts at the beginning of a race to secure the freedom and victory at the end of a race.
July 12, 2012
When I first started this book I thought it was really lame. He talks about himself a lot in a self-deprecating-yet-egotistical way, like he is so proud of being a loner. I kept thinking, "Man, get over yourself." He also has a lot of bogus ideas about ecto/endo/mesomorphs and how that determines your personality. I kept thinking he must really be a loner and not know anyone because I can think of a zillion individuals whose body types do not match the personalities he related to them. The first 15% of the book is filled with that, and it crops up again briefly several times later in the book.
For some reason I kept reading, and I am so glad I did. There are some amazingly inspiring essays. Reading this book will really make you want to find an activity you are good at and like doing, and do it with your whole heart and soul. It helps you find meaning in your life in the daily activities.
The core of his message is that play is meaningful.
He shares some really cool stories about some races he has been in, especially ones where he had a spiritual or emotional experience during the race. He also tells about some daily training sessions and how he feels about running in general. There is also some practical advice for runners which now is kind of outdated, like "Wear cushioned shoes" and "Land on your heel". On the other hand, you got to trust him on some stuff, because he is the world record holder for the over-50 2 mile, with a time of 10:53. Yeah. I bet less than 5% of the population of America can run that fast for even twenty yards. I could probably run that fast for only 800 m.
Despite the lame-brain self-absorption scattered through the book, it's definitely worth reading because it has so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiring stories. There are some really good life lessons.
For some reason I kept reading, and I am so glad I did. There are some amazingly inspiring essays. Reading this book will really make you want to find an activity you are good at and like doing, and do it with your whole heart and soul. It helps you find meaning in your life in the daily activities.
The core of his message is that play is meaningful.
He shares some really cool stories about some races he has been in, especially ones where he had a spiritual or emotional experience during the race. He also tells about some daily training sessions and how he feels about running in general. There is also some practical advice for runners which now is kind of outdated, like "Wear cushioned shoes" and "Land on your heel". On the other hand, you got to trust him on some stuff, because he is the world record holder for the over-50 2 mile, with a time of 10:53. Yeah. I bet less than 5% of the population of America can run that fast for even twenty yards. I could probably run that fast for only 800 m.
Despite the lame-brain self-absorption scattered through the book, it's definitely worth reading because it has so many nuggets of wisdom and inspiring stories. There are some really good life lessons.
October 28, 2023
I found this very insightful and poetic. This will definitely be a reread in the future. Very dense.
November 25, 2014
n my June 23, 2011 blog The Thinking Man’s Runner, I wrote about several of Dr. George Sheehan’s inspiring observations about distance running. In that blog I cited one of Dr. Sheehan’s memorable quotes, “But then my fitness program was never a fitness program. It was a campaign, a revolution, a conversion. I was determined to find myself. And, in the process, found my body and the soul that went with it.” It is one of many astute observations in his book, but one that resonated with the runner in me.
Running & Being analyzes living, discovery, playing, suffering, meditating and growing, not typical topics in a running book. He says, “Fitness is my life; it is indispensable. I have no alternative, no choice but to act out this inner drive that seems entirely right for me.” There is no doubt that running was right for him when he claimed, “Like most distance runners, I am still a child. And never more so than when I run. I take that play more seriously than anything else I do. And in that play I retire into the fantasy land of my imagination anytime I please.” Such a profound statement is motivation enough to get any runner to lace up and hit the trail.
Running & Being analyzes living, discovery, playing, suffering, meditating and growing, not typical topics in a running book. He says, “Fitness is my life; it is indispensable. I have no alternative, no choice but to act out this inner drive that seems entirely right for me.” There is no doubt that running was right for him when he claimed, “Like most distance runners, I am still a child. And never more so than when I run. I take that play more seriously than anything else I do. And in that play I retire into the fantasy land of my imagination anytime I please.” Such a profound statement is motivation enough to get any runner to lace up and hit the trail.
February 11, 2014
I picked up this book after seeing it repeatedly advertised in Runners Worlds. I am a dedicated distance runner myself as well as a cross country and track coach..needless to say I have a true obsession with the spore. This book however in no way inspired me. Like others have stated few words in this book are actually of the author himself. The pages consist of quotations of other philosophers, theologians, and athletes. Nothing that profound is ever stated and when the author writes that he is a "self-trained" philosopher the reader realizes why the author has been writing in circles on few ideas and with little original thought. All together, a complete disappointment for something that many runners claim to be part of the running literary canon.
December 18, 2023
"A bestseller in 1978" and ought to be a best forever, at least for true and serious runners. This book reads both like a "running" version of "Walden" and of "Unbearable lightness of being". Why did Dr. Sheehan (and me) running, in solitude mentally if not physically? To seek that " lightness"; to bear that "being". If God is Nature; running is the angel!
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"In this ease of movement, this harmony, this rhythmic breathing of life into life, I am able to let my mind wander. I absent myself from road and wind and the warm sun. I am free to mediate, to measure the importance of things."
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"In this ease of movement, this harmony, this rhythmic breathing of life into life, I am able to let my mind wander. I absent myself from road and wind and the warm sun. I am free to mediate, to measure the importance of things."
November 6, 2015
I wish I bought this on paperback instead of renting the ebook from the library. The reason I say that is because I constantly found myself wanting to highlight or underline certain passages, wishing I could go back to them over time. Maybe I will just have to go out and pick up a copy...
This is a great read for anyone who runs or is interesting in athletics generally, but it is also so rich with different references to philosophers, religious leaders, and poets that it reaches a lot further than the basic running insights that most of us share.
This is a great read for anyone who runs or is interesting in athletics generally, but it is also so rich with different references to philosophers, religious leaders, and poets that it reaches a lot further than the basic running insights that most of us share.
July 28, 2016
I did not finish this book. It was extremely boring, but that isn't why I didn't finish it. The reason I quit is because parts of it are very much autobiographical, and the author/main character is heinous. My breaking point was when he said that a) he is unable to make his own breakfast and b) if his breakfast English muffin is cut with a knife instead of pulled apart, it ruins his whole day.
August 3, 2013
Officially a DNF. May (someday) attempt to pick this back up and try again, I just couldn't stand the voice of the narrator and how pompous he came across. Which is too bad, because I was actually pretty excited to read it.
April 17, 2013
The runner-philosopher. This book reads as if Sheehan wrote the whole thing while on a runner's high. Besides Born to Run, this is the highlight of my running-book collection.
June 11, 2014
many interesting quotes and thought provoking comments. Though lots of wishywashiness too... worth the read? just
August 3, 2015
At times inspiring, but mostly repetitive and narcissistic "intellectual" ramblings. I wanted to like this book because I love running, but after giving it a few chances had to bail.
July 27, 2015
What a weird book. I love books about running, but I can't even tell if this is about running. Sheehan was a strange dude.
September 28, 2016
I feel like this is of a piece with Loren Eiseley's The Night Country. I wonder what else.
May 18, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, but it’s a lot more philosophical musing than any kind of reference book. Really inspiring none the less.
June 15, 2014
GS was truly the first runner philosopher of our modern era. Some of my favorites from the book:
Page 11 I look for answers on the roads. I take my tools of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and intellect and run with it. I discover a total Universe, a world that begins and ends sweat and exhaustion.
Page 35 for the runner, less is better. Life that is his work of art is understated. His needs and wants are few; he can be captured in a few strokes. One friend, a few clothes, a meal now and then, some change in his pockets, and, for enjoyment, his thoughts and the elements.
Page 46. To be satisfied with the simplicities, I have learned the possessions get in my way, that money and what it can buy are distractions. I have learned that simplicity starts when income exceeds out go.
Page 46. Inside of me, as in every thin man, there is a fat man saying, "eat " and my fat man is adding, "eat it's free."
Page 47. When I finally spend some money I prefer to have some permanent evidence the expenditure. Doing it on something that is immediately consumed leaves me feeling cheated. For much the same reason, I suppose, I have never smoked. Buying something and then setting it on fire is incomprehensible.
Page 51. From Pender to Emerson they have told us to become the thing we are, to fulfill our Design to choose our own reality, our own way of being a person. What they didn't tell us do it was how to do it, or how difficult it would be.
Page 52. We came more and more to associate who we were with what we owned, to judge ourselves by peoples’ opinions, to make our decisions by other peoples rules, to live by other peoples’ values. Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, our physical condition began to decline. We had reached the fork in the road. We took the well-traveled path.
Page 53. Physical fitness programs have long been based on the desire to lead a long life, to forestall heart attacks, to feel better generally or to improve your figure. No one ever told us that the body determined our mental and spiritual energy. That with the new body we can put on the new person and build a new life, the life we were always designed to lead but lost with the body we enjoyed in our youth.
Page 56. But succeed or fail, the true athlete makes no excuses. He recognizes himself without pride or prejudice. He knows what he can or cannot do. Found what he does best and is happy with it regardless of where he is listed in the standings. He has discovered himself understood his strengths and weaknesses, and accepted them.
Page 63. People just do not do things because they are good for them. And are even less inclined to do so when they enjoy doing the opposite. People accept the rationale, practical, physiological only when it dawns on them that life any other way is a waste. Only then will they agree to a program that to them is a mindless, inconvenient and boring use other time.
Page 68. " The next major advance in the health of the American people," said Dr. John Knowles of the Rockefeller Foundation, " will result only from what the individual is willing to do for himself. "
Page 70. The message I get from consulting myself is clear. First I ran from instinct. Later I was forced to exercise in physical education. Even later I came to run and exercise because it was prescribed by authorities. But finally I have come to run because it is the right and true and just thing for me to do. In the process I may be helping my arteries and heart and circulation as well, but that is not my concern.
Page 75. For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it is all suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy, not a trial but a reward, not a question but an answer.
Page 94. We are taught collectively; “Education,” said Socrates, “was the winning of knowledge out of yourself.” Yet the activity of the classroom and the lecture hall is to homogenize people.
Page 95. If you would learn how to defraud the consumer, observe the educators: they imprisoned their audience, set up delusionary goals called success and happiness, sell inadequate means called science and the humanities, and disparage their competitors – the body and spirit. And when they fail, they blame the pupils, not the teachers. Blame us, not themselves... As with everything else in life, if you would be educated, you must do it yourself.
Page 119. Every mile I run is my first period. Every hour on the roads is a new beginning. Every day I put on my running clothes, I am born again. Seeing things as if for the first time, seeing the familiar as unfamiliar, the common as uncommon.
Page 123 The fight, then, is never with age, it is with boredom, with routine, with the danger of not living at all. The life will stop, growth will cease, learning will come to an end. You no longer become who you are. You begin to kill time or live it without thought for purpose. Everything that is happiness, all that is excitement, whatever you know of joy and delight will evaporate. Life will be reduced to a slow progression of days and weeks and months. Time will become an enemy instead of an ally. When I run, I enter a world where time stops, where now is a fair sample of Eternity. Where I am filled with excitement in joy and delight, even with the intensity and inner fire and never ending search for self.
"Play, games, jests, culture," wrote Plato, "we affirm are the most serious things in life."
We can continue to keep our bodies in beauty and competence until death claims us. We should know that the fit die young in body as well as in mind and heart.
Running has made me young again. I run now as I did at 20. I have the same health, the same vigor, the same sensations of power and grace. And I have the strength and speed and endurance of those years younger than me. Not because I am exceptional, but because I do what I do with my whole self.
Running gives me a body and mind and heart willing to follow my own vision, to break the mold, to choose a new course even perhaps to become the hero that Ortega said we all carry within us.
Page 150. And I know now, as every teacher should know, the truth of Ortegas statement, " it is not desire that leads to knowledge but necessity. "
Page 164. There is an excitement in practice. Perhaps the greatest of all excitements. The discovery of who I am. Alone with myself and my stopwatch, I learn who I am. I find out what I can do.
Page 181. Tom Baum, the director of the January 9 Jersey Shore marathon, called me a few days before the beach race to predict that the event will be held in horrible weather. In a voice radiating with joy he said, " I think we'll have a snow storm with high winds and freezing temperatures. It will be an experience we will never forget. "
Page 185 Fatigue, you see, does depend on motivation and lactic acid and task aversion, but it also depends on something else. Man's limits are not simply in his cells or even in his brain. You can measure lactic acid and stimulate brain areas with an electrode and make a person's arms and legs move. But there is no place in the brain where stimulation will cause a person to decide. No substance in his blood that will cause him to believe.
That choice, that act of faith, is made in the mind. And in answering the great question, " will you or won't you have it so? " we find the energy that conquers fatigue and conquers ourselves as well.
Page 194. If you want to be all you can be, you have to expect a failure from time to time. Finding the limits of your ability will almost certainly end in a walk to the finish line.
Page 199. "When a man dies," wrote Charles Peguy, "he dies not from the disease alone. He dies from his whole life. "
Page 228. This is probably not true about everyone, but the runner would agree. He possesses himself in solitude and silence and suffering. He is gradually stripped of desires and attachment to things. As I run, I get closer and closer to requiring nothing more than life supports, air and water and the use of the planet.
Page 246. We were not created to be spectators. Not made to be onlookers. Not born to be bystanders. You and I cannot view life as a theater goer would, please or displeased but what unfolds. You, as well as I, are producer, playwright, and actor making, creating and living the drama on stage. Life must be lived. Act it out. The play we are in is our own.
There are reasons, of course, to observe others. To learn how something is done. And to see the human body or soul or intellect in its perfection. We watch others so that their skill becomes our skill, their wisdom becomes our wisdom, their faith becomes our faith. But eventually we must go it alone. Find our own skill, our own wisdom, our own faith. Otherwise we will die without having learned who we are or what we can accomplish. And we will die without having an inkling of the meaning of it all.
Page 255. What do I do now? No matter what I have done, there is still more to do. No matter how well it has been done, it can still be done better. No matter how fast the race, it can still be run faster. Everything I do must be aimed at that, aimed at being a masterpiece. The things I write, the races I run, everyday I live. There can be no other way.
www.veggierunner.com
Page 11 I look for answers on the roads. I take my tools of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and intellect and run with it. I discover a total Universe, a world that begins and ends sweat and exhaustion.
Page 35 for the runner, less is better. Life that is his work of art is understated. His needs and wants are few; he can be captured in a few strokes. One friend, a few clothes, a meal now and then, some change in his pockets, and, for enjoyment, his thoughts and the elements.
Page 46. To be satisfied with the simplicities, I have learned the possessions get in my way, that money and what it can buy are distractions. I have learned that simplicity starts when income exceeds out go.
Page 46. Inside of me, as in every thin man, there is a fat man saying, "eat " and my fat man is adding, "eat it's free."
Page 47. When I finally spend some money I prefer to have some permanent evidence the expenditure. Doing it on something that is immediately consumed leaves me feeling cheated. For much the same reason, I suppose, I have never smoked. Buying something and then setting it on fire is incomprehensible.
Page 51. From Pender to Emerson they have told us to become the thing we are, to fulfill our Design to choose our own reality, our own way of being a person. What they didn't tell us do it was how to do it, or how difficult it would be.
Page 52. We came more and more to associate who we were with what we owned, to judge ourselves by peoples’ opinions, to make our decisions by other peoples rules, to live by other peoples’ values. Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, our physical condition began to decline. We had reached the fork in the road. We took the well-traveled path.
Page 53. Physical fitness programs have long been based on the desire to lead a long life, to forestall heart attacks, to feel better generally or to improve your figure. No one ever told us that the body determined our mental and spiritual energy. That with the new body we can put on the new person and build a new life, the life we were always designed to lead but lost with the body we enjoyed in our youth.
Page 56. But succeed or fail, the true athlete makes no excuses. He recognizes himself without pride or prejudice. He knows what he can or cannot do. Found what he does best and is happy with it regardless of where he is listed in the standings. He has discovered himself understood his strengths and weaknesses, and accepted them.
Page 63. People just do not do things because they are good for them. And are even less inclined to do so when they enjoy doing the opposite. People accept the rationale, practical, physiological only when it dawns on them that life any other way is a waste. Only then will they agree to a program that to them is a mindless, inconvenient and boring use other time.
Page 68. " The next major advance in the health of the American people," said Dr. John Knowles of the Rockefeller Foundation, " will result only from what the individual is willing to do for himself. "
Page 70. The message I get from consulting myself is clear. First I ran from instinct. Later I was forced to exercise in physical education. Even later I came to run and exercise because it was prescribed by authorities. But finally I have come to run because it is the right and true and just thing for me to do. In the process I may be helping my arteries and heart and circulation as well, but that is not my concern.
Page 75. For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it is all suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy, not a trial but a reward, not a question but an answer.
Page 94. We are taught collectively; “Education,” said Socrates, “was the winning of knowledge out of yourself.” Yet the activity of the classroom and the lecture hall is to homogenize people.
Page 95. If you would learn how to defraud the consumer, observe the educators: they imprisoned their audience, set up delusionary goals called success and happiness, sell inadequate means called science and the humanities, and disparage their competitors – the body and spirit. And when they fail, they blame the pupils, not the teachers. Blame us, not themselves... As with everything else in life, if you would be educated, you must do it yourself.
Page 119. Every mile I run is my first period. Every hour on the roads is a new beginning. Every day I put on my running clothes, I am born again. Seeing things as if for the first time, seeing the familiar as unfamiliar, the common as uncommon.
Page 123 The fight, then, is never with age, it is with boredom, with routine, with the danger of not living at all. The life will stop, growth will cease, learning will come to an end. You no longer become who you are. You begin to kill time or live it without thought for purpose. Everything that is happiness, all that is excitement, whatever you know of joy and delight will evaporate. Life will be reduced to a slow progression of days and weeks and months. Time will become an enemy instead of an ally. When I run, I enter a world where time stops, where now is a fair sample of Eternity. Where I am filled with excitement in joy and delight, even with the intensity and inner fire and never ending search for self.
"Play, games, jests, culture," wrote Plato, "we affirm are the most serious things in life."
We can continue to keep our bodies in beauty and competence until death claims us. We should know that the fit die young in body as well as in mind and heart.
Running has made me young again. I run now as I did at 20. I have the same health, the same vigor, the same sensations of power and grace. And I have the strength and speed and endurance of those years younger than me. Not because I am exceptional, but because I do what I do with my whole self.
Running gives me a body and mind and heart willing to follow my own vision, to break the mold, to choose a new course even perhaps to become the hero that Ortega said we all carry within us.
Page 150. And I know now, as every teacher should know, the truth of Ortegas statement, " it is not desire that leads to knowledge but necessity. "
Page 164. There is an excitement in practice. Perhaps the greatest of all excitements. The discovery of who I am. Alone with myself and my stopwatch, I learn who I am. I find out what I can do.
Page 181. Tom Baum, the director of the January 9 Jersey Shore marathon, called me a few days before the beach race to predict that the event will be held in horrible weather. In a voice radiating with joy he said, " I think we'll have a snow storm with high winds and freezing temperatures. It will be an experience we will never forget. "
Page 185 Fatigue, you see, does depend on motivation and lactic acid and task aversion, but it also depends on something else. Man's limits are not simply in his cells or even in his brain. You can measure lactic acid and stimulate brain areas with an electrode and make a person's arms and legs move. But there is no place in the brain where stimulation will cause a person to decide. No substance in his blood that will cause him to believe.
That choice, that act of faith, is made in the mind. And in answering the great question, " will you or won't you have it so? " we find the energy that conquers fatigue and conquers ourselves as well.
Page 194. If you want to be all you can be, you have to expect a failure from time to time. Finding the limits of your ability will almost certainly end in a walk to the finish line.
Page 199. "When a man dies," wrote Charles Peguy, "he dies not from the disease alone. He dies from his whole life. "
Page 228. This is probably not true about everyone, but the runner would agree. He possesses himself in solitude and silence and suffering. He is gradually stripped of desires and attachment to things. As I run, I get closer and closer to requiring nothing more than life supports, air and water and the use of the planet.
Page 246. We were not created to be spectators. Not made to be onlookers. Not born to be bystanders. You and I cannot view life as a theater goer would, please or displeased but what unfolds. You, as well as I, are producer, playwright, and actor making, creating and living the drama on stage. Life must be lived. Act it out. The play we are in is our own.
There are reasons, of course, to observe others. To learn how something is done. And to see the human body or soul or intellect in its perfection. We watch others so that their skill becomes our skill, their wisdom becomes our wisdom, their faith becomes our faith. But eventually we must go it alone. Find our own skill, our own wisdom, our own faith. Otherwise we will die without having learned who we are or what we can accomplish. And we will die without having an inkling of the meaning of it all.
Page 255. What do I do now? No matter what I have done, there is still more to do. No matter how well it has been done, it can still be done better. No matter how fast the race, it can still be run faster. Everything I do must be aimed at that, aimed at being a masterpiece. The things I write, the races I run, everyday I live. There can be no other way.
www.veggierunner.com
January 10, 2021
Running & Being: The Total Experience that helped get the world running is back. This New York Times bestseller written by the late runner, doctor, philosopher, Dr George Sheehan is a timeless classic. It tells of Dr Sheehan's midlife return to the world of exercise, play, and competition. The core of his message is that play is meaningful. Focusing on the importance of "play", Sheehan describes his program for fitness and joy, sharing with the reader how the body helps open up our mental and spiritual energies. If you love running, then I highly recommend most of this book.
Some of my favourites from the book:
“The more I run, the more I want to run, and the more I live a life conditioned and influenced and fashioned by my running. And the more I run, the more certain I am that I am heading for my real goal: to become the person I am.”
What do I do now? No matter what I have done, there is still more to do. No matter how well it has been done, it can still be done better. No matter how fast the race, it can still be run faster. Everything I do must be aimed at that, aimed at being a masterpiece. The things I write, the races I run, everyday I live. There can be no other way.
“The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.”
There is an excitement in practice. Perhaps the greatest of all excitements. The discovery of who I am. Alone with myself and my stopwatch, I learn who I am. I find out what I can do. I try my best do as I can.
"Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant."
We came more and more to associate who we were with what we owned, to judge ourselves by peoples’ opinions, to make our decisions by other peoples rules, to live by other peoples’ values. Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, our physical condition began to decline. We had reached the fork in the road. We took the well-traveled path.
“There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.”
Physical fitness programs have long been based on the desire to lead a long life, to forestall heart attacks, to feel better generally or to improve your figure. No one ever told us that the body determined our mental and spiritual energy. That with the new body we can put on the new person and build a new life, the life we were always designed to lead but lost with the body we enjoyed in our youth.
"Anything that changes your values changes your behaviour."
To be satisfied with the simplicities, I have learned the possessions get in my way, that money and what it can buy are distractions. I have learned that simplicity starts when income exceeds out go.
"Of all the races there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon."
For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it is all suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy, not a trial but a reward, not a question but an answer.
“And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.”
I look for answers on the roads. I take my tools of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and intellect and run with it. I discover a total Universe, a world that begins and ends sweat and exhaustion.
“Running is just such a monastery- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.”
For the runner, less is better. Life that is his work of art is understated. His needs and wants are few; he can be captured in a few strokes. One friend, a few clothes, a meal now and then, some change in his pockets, and, for enjoyment, his thoughts and the elements.
Some of my favourites from the book:
“The more I run, the more I want to run, and the more I live a life conditioned and influenced and fashioned by my running. And the more I run, the more certain I am that I am heading for my real goal: to become the person I am.”
What do I do now? No matter what I have done, there is still more to do. No matter how well it has been done, it can still be done better. No matter how fast the race, it can still be run faster. Everything I do must be aimed at that, aimed at being a masterpiece. The things I write, the races I run, everyday I live. There can be no other way.
“The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.”
There is an excitement in practice. Perhaps the greatest of all excitements. The discovery of who I am. Alone with myself and my stopwatch, I learn who I am. I find out what I can do. I try my best do as I can.
"Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant."
We came more and more to associate who we were with what we owned, to judge ourselves by peoples’ opinions, to make our decisions by other peoples rules, to live by other peoples’ values. Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, our physical condition began to decline. We had reached the fork in the road. We took the well-traveled path.
“There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.”
Physical fitness programs have long been based on the desire to lead a long life, to forestall heart attacks, to feel better generally or to improve your figure. No one ever told us that the body determined our mental and spiritual energy. That with the new body we can put on the new person and build a new life, the life we were always designed to lead but lost with the body we enjoyed in our youth.
"Anything that changes your values changes your behaviour."
To be satisfied with the simplicities, I have learned the possessions get in my way, that money and what it can buy are distractions. I have learned that simplicity starts when income exceeds out go.
"Of all the races there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon."
For every runner who tours the world running marathons, there are thousands who run to hear the leaves and listen to rain and look to the day when it is all suddenly as easy as a bird in flight. For them, sport is not a test but a therapy, not a trial but a reward, not a question but an answer.
“And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.”
I look for answers on the roads. I take my tools of sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and intellect and run with it. I discover a total Universe, a world that begins and ends sweat and exhaustion.
“Running is just such a monastery- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.”
For the runner, less is better. Life that is his work of art is understated. His needs and wants are few; he can be captured in a few strokes. One friend, a few clothes, a meal now and then, some change in his pockets, and, for enjoyment, his thoughts and the elements.
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