Running writing

The first book I wrote about running was titled Jography. It was a runner’s guide to Sydney, with course descriptions, maps, directories of running clubs and stores, sports doctors, sports psychologists, and so on. It had been my idea, and I pitched it to my publisher boss of the time who said: ‘Run with it.’

I found someone with some credibility in the running world to be the name on the book and to help me research the runs; I did all the writing. John was a great person to have on board, enthusiastic and a fun running companion.

At the time I was writing the book I lived in Woollahra, just a short sprint from Centennial Park, Sydney’s equivalent of New York’s Central Park. I would sometimes join a bunch of blokes who ran around the perimeter of the park; or I would meet them at Bondi Beach early in the morning to do the beach run. The head honcho of this group was a well-known Eastern Suburbs realtor for whom running was a passion second only to making mega-bucks in commissions on the sale of harbour-side mansions.

It was at this time I ran my first Sydney City to Surf race. Even back then, in the mid-1980s, it was crowded. Today there are 75,000 or so participants. I recall nearly being tripped up by a couple of men dressed in nun’s habits and carrying a surfboard. The route passes through the Kings Cross tunnel and the harbour-side suburbs of Double Bay and Rose Bay, then winds up Heartbreak Hill. If you can lift your eyes long enough from your shuffling feet, there are stunning views from here back towards the city. Once you catch the sight and smell of the ocean again, it’s not far to the finish on Bondi Beach. It’s truly one of the world’s great runs.

Another fun race that I participated in at around this time was a relay across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I was one of a team of four runners, each of whom had to run from Observatory Hill across the bridge and back, before handing over the baton to their next team member.

There’s something about running over bridges that I find very appealing. I’ve also left my footprints on the bridge in Macau that links the now Chinese mainland with the island of Coloane, the wonderful Rialto Bridge in Venice, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and New York’s Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. I hope to run across many more iconic bridges when I come to them.

By the time Jography was to be published I had moved to Hong Kong and was unavailable for the cover photo shoot. In my place, at John’s side, is a rather more glamorous stand-in. The shot was taken on the famous Bondi to Bronte path, which is another of my favourite runs in Sydney.

My second book about running was an adaptation of a Canadian guide for beginning runners. I was commissioned by one of my publisher clients to localise the general content for Australian readers. I interviewed nutritionists, podiatrists, coaches, sports medicine practitioners and other professionals, and profiled runners of all standards whose stories I found inspiring. One of my contributors was a firefighter who saw himself as a runner first and foremost. ‘As a runner, you are a runner 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This doesn’t mean that you are actually running the entire time, of course. But when you sit down to eat, you are a runner who is eating; when you go off to work, you are a runner going to work; when you watch TV, you are a runner watching TV. I find that I can really enjoy relaxing, knowing that I’ve had a good run earlier in the day. … I often wonder if a sedentary person can get the same enjoyment from their leisure time as an active person does.’

My friend Barb agreed to be a guinea pig and to follow the 13-week program for beginning runners that was the core of the book. She hadn’t run since her school days but had a good level of basic fitness from being a regular early-morning walker. (How often do we see groups of women out walking in the pre-dawn, and how seldom do we see groups of men doing the same?) We followed the steps in the program, which involve slowly increasing the running component of a workout session from walking only. Well, Barb was blown away by the results.

‘It was hard to see myself as a runner. Where one week I was very apprehensive about increasing the running parts from one minute to two minutes, I soon found I was having sleepless nights worrying about my first four-minute run! I was stoked the first time I did it. I actually found it easier than the shorter runs the week before.’

As Barb’s ability to run for longer periods steadily increased, so too did her confidence in her ability to meet the next challenge. Along the way she became more comfortable with the idea that she was, in fact, becoming a runner. ‘I felt like a piece of elastic. I was stretching myself further each week, and I hadn’t known I could stretch myself that far,’ she said.

My friend Julie also described her experiences for the book. Julie prefers cycling and swimming to running, but she took up jogging in order to be able to compete in triathlons. She admits that running gives her something she can’t get from her other sports: ‘I really enjoy running in the bush, where it’s green and cool and everything smells fresh.’ Another of her favourite places to run is on dirt roads. ‘I love the sound of gravel crunching under my feet!’

For Julie, like a lot of runners, the discipline of getting up and out of a warm bed and putting on her running shoes while it’s still dark outside pays off in all sorts of ways. ‘Running has increased my confidence in my ability to set goals and to work towards them and achieve them.’ Formerly an aerobics instructor, Julie has since completed a degree in early childhood education and is now a teacher. Two mornings a week she arrives at my house at around 5.30, hands me her car keys, and we set off in the dark for a half-hour run, a natter and a laugh.

My mate Robert also shared his story in the book. He has always been a keen social sportsman: skiing, tennis, bushwalking, cycling. Running was something new for him when he took it up soon after we met in late 1995. As he says in the book, ‘As my running progressed, I realised there were other benefits of being fit. As you get fitter, your physical health improves and this helps you to become emotionally stronger. The improvements seem to snowball. Running has helped me with everyday life and its problems. It gives me some time out, time to think things over.’ Robert believes that it’s important to have goals to aim for, but also to take one day at a time. ‘When you first start running, 5K, 10K or 20K seems an impossible distance. But if you just focus on today, on enjoying your run, you’ll get there.’ In 1997, Rob ran his first half marathon in company with his teenage son. ‘I can look back now and see my progress and achievements – achievements that five years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed were possible.’

Twelve years on, Robert and I still run together one morning a week at 6.30.

Through this blog I hope you’ll meet my other regular running companions – Diane, Christine, Vicky and Dotti.