I immediately had borrower’s remorse.
Leave it to me to always find an author’s second book – the follow up to what made the author a house-hold name.
In this case, I’ve recently finished Running Free by Richard Askwith, the follow up to Feet in the Clouds, which some say is one of the best books on running. I don’t know. I haven’t read it. A quick Google search shows I am definitely out of the loop. Feet of the Clouds was published in 2004. (I’ve since mentally added it to my Goodreads “to read” list.)
But I did read Running Free, which I borrowed from Laura about two weeks ago. Laura had been talking about this other running book that she wanted me to read for about two years. We either forget about it or Laura can’t find it. So a couple of weeks ago, Laura shoved this book in my hands. Here you go, she said. 
Askwith is a UK-based runner and journalist/writer. I’m immediately intrigued because at least I know the writing will be good. In Running Free, Askwith explores his lifelong love affair with running, and how he started running in his 20s and how he continues into his 50s. It’s not your typical come-to-Jesus-moment running biography.
It’s an unexpected and interesting read on how Askwith’s view of running evolves over the years.
Askwith goes back to the basics asking the question – “Are we really so smart to have forgotten how to live in simpler ways? And is it any different with running? We are more sophisticated than any previous generation of runners … What about the ability simply to go outside and, unaided by any kind of modern equipment, run across rough countryside for five or ten miles irrespective of the terrain and the weather? I suspect many talented runners would struggle with such a simple challenge.” (Running Free, pg 86)
It’s these kind of questions, I think we should ask ourselves as runners. Are we so caught up in our paces, our distances, the bling that we lose sight of why we run? Do we all need to get back to basics or to run naturally so to speak?
I am on a real minimalist kick right now so this book really spoke to me.
As well, I absolutely love his descriptions from ‘feel the texture of the earth with my feet, and read the landscape with as many senses as I can activate‘ to ‘the cold and the wet seem secondary to the suddenly monochrome landscape.’
Read this book if you are in the need of an intelligently written book about running. The language is clear and convincing with bouts of humour to keep you smiling. My favourite line, which could have definitely been written for me (or my friend Amanda), starts Chapter 5. “I said earlier that I have no special running talents. In fact, I have one: getting lost.”