If you’re a runner (or just running-curious), you’ll love the beautiful, thoughtful new book This Is Running by Raziq Rauf, author of the wonderful Running Sucks newsletter.
Raz was kind enough to send me a copy and even kinder to include me in the book (an interview about the origin and impact of Couch to 5K). But that’s not why I’m recommending it.
This Is Running is both a wonderful artifact of cultural research—UX researchers take note!—and a love letter to a world that Raz clearly adores, like so many of us. It’s an expansive exploration of why we run: What on earth motivates anyone not only to do this hard thing but to fall in love with it?
The book applies many lenses to that question: community, consumer culture, technology, identity, history, and place. Raz takes you from childhood playgrounds to high-mountain trails to everyday run clubs to the inside of tech labs and apparel companies. It goes deep into all the rituals and emotions that runners invest in the sport, individually and with others. It feels like every kind of runner is represented here.
It’s also a gorgeous book, well-designed and full of striking photography. It’s one of those rare books that is BOTH a cover-to-cover bedside read and a pride-of-place object on the coffee table.
I’ve already read the thing twice. I love it. Highly recommend.
