Why We Run

Why We Run records Robin Harvie\'s decision to compete in the Spartathlon in Greece, a challenge that requires its entrants to run 152 miles from Athens to Sparta in under 36 hours. As with many amateur runners, it takes a while for the author to find his rhythm. Harvie begins with the months leading up to his greatest test. His finale is, naturally, the race itself. But this is less a training diary, more the unwinding of one man\'s responses to exercise. His pages are populated with historical and inspirational figures - from the relatively unknown (ultra-marathon competitor Scott Jurek) to the more familiar (Olympian Emil Zåtopek) - as his mind wanders in the long, lonely hours of preparation. He makes several attempts to answer the question in his book\'s title. \"The lure of running great distances is always a deeply personal one,\" he writes, unsatisfactorily, early on. Later, Harvie finds his feet: \"It became clear that a marathon is not a great distance for those of us who will never trouble the winners.\" Echoing the Olympic creed, for Harvie, it is more important to compete, than to win.