Two For One Special!

Born to Run
Christopher McDougall


                         Run Like a Mother
                   Dimity McDowell Davis
                      Sarah Bowen Shea



Run like a mother. Or a Tarahamura. Or run like anything, just run. These two books share that basic idea - that running is about more than mere exercise and that without it we are prone to more disease and depression. I have to agree with at that. My form is atrocious and I’m slow. But I love, love, love running. Why? Because there is simply few things better than coming back from an early morning run, the sun just shrugging her shoulders over the hills, listening to some Simon and Garfunkel and feeling your feet beneath you.

Run Like a Mother, co-written by Sarah and Dimity, could also be titled Run Like a Female, as a good portion of the book is less centered on motherhood and more on running in genera. And the parts that did touch on motherhood as it pertains to running fell into one of areas (1) the physical effects of pregnancy and running (2) balancing family life with running.

The book did a decent job with the first area. I ran through my own pregnancy and my plan was to have the baby, take 3, maybe 4 days off from running and get back into it. Hahahaha. Let me say that again. Hahahaha. It was several weeks until I managed to get to the gym and walk on a treadmill, hunched over grasping the sides. Afterwards I had to lie down on the gym’s couch. And it was a year before every run did not involve me thinking about having given birth to a 10 pound baby (all right, he was more like 7, but considering the region, it’s like the difference between getting hit by a train and getting hit with a train with a dining car – sucks both ways) that is, it was easily a year until I felt good during a run. Which probably would not have seemed like such an abnormal time if I’d read Run Like a Mother. Of course, if I’d read that before I got pregnant, there might have been a getting pregnant. So, it’s a good thing the book wasn’t Run Like a Trying to Conceive Woman.

They did have some handy tips, some of which I was already aware (the peeing in public benefits of running skirts) and some I wasn’t – effervescent tablets to replace the minerals lost while running without having to suck down three tablespoons of sugar at the same time (sugary drinks make me want to instantly brush my teeth and I already look odd enough running without having to carry a toothbrush with me.)

What I wish they had been more specific about was the whole balancing family life with running. They provide anecdotes, but not enough background information to really be able to use any ideas from them. For example, we don’t know if the authors work outside the home, how long they work, or (and this is a pet peeve of mine) what is meant by “early morning”. There’s a world of difference between out the door at 5 a.m. and out the door at 7 a.m. Mr. Inktini has generally been very generous and understanding about my morning runs, which may or may not be helped by my non-too subtle glances at my watch after he gets up (I get up with the Offspring).

McDougall’s book on the other hand, is all about the Woman Who Finished in the top 10of a 100 miler, while stopping to breast feed her child at every stop (Emily Baer), which while certainly impressive, could be a little discouraging to those who fall a little to the left of that endurance spectrum (quick note: for all of McDougall’s interesting facts and stories, there is no footnotes). He does however, provide some interesting research on why we run and how humans are particularly adapted to running long distances. It turns out that the average marathon time, about 4 -5 hours, is just about the same amount of time it takes hunters to run down game.

McDougall’s real story though, is about the Tarahamura; an ancient civilization for whom running ultra-distances is second nature. First nature seems to be a gentle and honest character that is apparently not harmed by the occasional corn-alcohol fueled parties.

McDougall helps put together a race that pits the Tarahumara against a ragtag bunch of American long distance runners that include Scott Jurek and a pair of young runners that seem to share the Tarahamura's ability to pound down drinks and rise the next morning to run insanely long runs. McDougall himself runs the race, uncertain whether he will be able to finish the 50 mile course, having been told by doctor’s that if he wanted his pain to go away that he would need to stop running.

It’s a fun read and inspiring. I even ran a few times without my iPod, which was good in that it allowed me to concentrate more on my form, which is usually centered around the best way to hold my iPod so that I can compulsively switch songs or listen to the same one for an hour. But, then ultimately, I went back to my weak, iPod listening, peeing in the street ways. Which is not such a bad thing. As both books show, running, any way that you can manage it, is always a good thing in the end.

Room

Room
Emma Donoghue

I am so, so, so very behind on writing up my thoughts on what I’ve been reading. Granted, since I’ve been sick I’ve been reading some lighter material and going through it without taking notes, but still…someone should just lock me in a room…and wait—was that just an only slight segue way into my next review? Why, yes it was, my dear non-existent reader.

In Room, Emma Donoghue’s seventh novel, five-year old Jack and his Ma are being kept captive in a converted garage but not to write book reviews. Instead Old Nick as Jack calls him because he comes in the middle of the night, visits Ma in the middle of the night for distinctly non-literary activities. Jack, born into captivity, knows only “Room” and as a consequence all the little items one would take for granted come to take on greater significance – a spoon becomes Meltedy Spoon, a bed becomes Bed, and everything outside their 11 x 11 room is Outer Space.

That is until Jack’s mother, in a momentary fit of frustration, tells Jack that what he sees on T.V. is real and is outside their door. Not long after this little revelation, in a scene that would serve well as a blueprint for creating tension and suspense in a novel, Jack and Ma, make their escape, perhaps spurred by the vision of cable television.

Once on the outside though, Jack and Ma, predictably, have some difficulties. And so does the book. Inside Room, the book slowly reveals through the contents and Jack and Ma’s games, their lives. It is both sad and comforting. Part of you wants them to stay there, cocooned in their Jack and Ma-ness.

Outside Room though, the story becomes a bit flat and not quite as believable, as if the author spent all of her energy creating the world in Room. In particular there is a scene towards the end where Ma takes a bunch of pills and is in danger of becoming permanently Gone, that didn’t ring true for a woman that spent five years fiercely protecting her son.

Still, there are some poignant observations though from Jack as he learns to live Outside, such as:

“Driving home I see the playground, but it’s all wrong, the swings are on the opposite side. “Oh Jack, that’s a different one, “says Grandma. There’s playgrounds in every town.” Lots of the world seems to be a repeat.”

The second half of the book isn’t bad by any means, it’s just, well, a little disappointing. Kind of like escaping from captivity into the “real” world would be I suppose. Except for the better television.