"When I Talk About Running, What Do I Talk About" is a collection of running essays by Haruki Murakami. A few years ago, marathons seemed to have become social fashion overnight, and the book was all the rage, and I read it during that time. Recently, I was recommended this book again by the runners of the Youth Federation, and after reading it, I suddenly had the urge to write something.
People who are familiar with Murakami seem to know more about the indifferent calm and inexplicable sadness brought by works such as "Norwegian Forest", "Listening to the Wind", "Kafka by the Sea", and "1Q84". As some commentators have said, Murakami's novels are written by lonely people for lonely people. "Running" as an essay, there is no such mood, but the text is still consistently clean, never dragging mud and water, and there is enough humor to always hit you silently.
According to Murakami himself, the reason why he was able to write so prolificly was due to the training of long-distance running. From Kauai in Hawaii to Cambridge in Massachusetts, from the village-listed triathlon to the Greek Marathon Trail, he has been running at least 10 kilometers a day. In the summer of 2005, Murakami rented an apartment on Hawaii's Kauai Island and took advantage of the cool morning weather to write about running, and he wanted to leave a record for his 23-year-long sport. In 2009, the book was officially published, and the delicate brushstrokes and documentary methods recorded the psychological activities of Murakami's running and how to extend the attitude toward running to thinking about life. Because of the authenticity and empathy, it reads smoothly and easily, like talking face to face with an old friend for a long time in the early summer morning.
There is a saying that goes: in life, only reading and running can not be disappointed. So today, let's use this book as a medium to talk about running.
Why do people run? Just as there are a hundred Hamlets in a hundred people's minds, different people may have different answers to this question. I think that while the motivations for starting a run are varied, the benefits of running are roughly the same.
Running makes me healthier, happier and more confident. In 1981, Murakami decided to abandon the shop business and become a full-time novelist. At the beginning, he smoked 60 cigarettes a day to maintain his physical strength, and as a result, his whole body smelled of smoke, his fingers were yellow, and his body grew flesh. Murakami said in the book that what motivated him to run was the deterioration of his health and energy after 6 hours of work every day, hoping to maintain his weight and wake up his body through running. I started running in 2013. At that time, I was "starting a business" in Jinggangshan, a good mountain and a good water and a lonely environment, coupled with the unspeakable huge difficulties and pressures at the beginning of the "entrepreneurship", which made me suspect that I was more or less slightly depressed, and my body was extremely deformed because of the water and soil. After hearing a lot about cattle running, I also started jogging at turtle speed. Now I still clearly remember that under the moonlight as clear as water, from three or four laps around the playground to being able to run a dozen laps, not only the weight was reduced and the figure was tightened, but also the dopamine secretion was more, and the human mood was obviously better. In the movement of breaking through the self again and again, people will become to enjoy the challenge and love life.
Running taught me what it means to set goals for life. I believe that everyone who has just run has thought viciously in their hearts, I will not run after x kilometers! But the joy of every time you complete the goal you set for yourself before going out is also a great satisfaction brought by running. The same is true for life, each stage must have a goal, no matter what the result, the process of effort is the most meaningful. Murakami also records his own mentality when running in the book: the same ten years, instead of living in a vacuum, it is of course far more satisfying to live with a clear purpose and vitality. For me, running is not only a beneficial physical exercise, but also an effective metaphor. I run every day, or accumulate experience, while raising the crossbar of the target little by little, and improve myself by surpassing this height. At the very least, aspire to improve yourself and work hard for the day. I surpassed myself yesterday, even if it was only a little bit, it was more important.
Running taught me awe. Murakami said that when running an ultramarathon, even if you are very tired and tired, you are not willing to rest while walking, always remind yourself that the marathon is a race to run, not a race to walk, if you violate the principles you have set, even if it is only once, you will violate more principles in the future, and it will be more difficult to finish the race. This is the rule of reverence. He also wrote that even if the amount of practice decreases, it is not interrupted to practice for more than two days, which is the basic rule when accumulating running volume. Muscles are much like animals with good memory, and as long as they pay attention to increasing the load in stages, they can naturally adapt and withstand. Willing to take time, step by step, it has no complaints, only occasionally bitter face, tenacious and obedient to continue to improve its toughness. Our muscles are very conformist. As long as we strictly follow the formalities, it has no resentment. It's in awe of science. Buffett once said: "If you want to win the first place in the marathon, the first thing you have to do is to keep running the whole distance." We must learn to keep ourselves from getting hurt and running longer, rather than being able to do it for a while. Know how to fear nature, fear science, fear your body, just like life, have the courage to move forward and know how to stay at the right time.
Running has made me understand the qualities of persistence and self-discipline more deeply. Murakami quotes Maugham: "Any razor has its own philosophy." "It is said that no matter how trivial the action, as long as it is persisted day by day, something similar to the concept will always arise from it. The book "Running" is to express a spirit of perseverance. "But when you insist on running desperately, it feels as if everything is squeezed out of the deepest part of the body, and a kind of self-abandonment is born." Running also forces you to schedule your time more efficiently. We often hear people say, I want to exercise but I don't have time! In fact, we think that a person who insists on running with enough frequency every week either develops the habit of getting up early, or refuses unnecessary socializing, or does a good job of fragmented time management. Time is like a sponge, and there will always be a squeeze. The attitude of perseverance and non-giving up will inevitably help you to go wider and wider on the road of life.
Running taught me to live with pain and reconcile with myself. "Pain is hard to avoid, but tribulations are optional." Murakami said that whenever he runs for a long distance, this sentence appears repeatedly in his mind. To actively choose ordeal is to take the initiative in life in your own hands. Hurts, legs like lead, everyone runs will encounter these pains, when you realize that this is a process that running must go through, you will no longer compete with yourself, do not get lost in the race, do not insist on pace, distance. Murakami also said one thing in the book: he himself belongs to the fat physique, while his wife is just the opposite, how to eat will not become fat. He complained: God is really unfair, some people can't get what they can't get without trying, and some people can get it without trying. Later, it suddenly occurred to him that if this were not the case, he would not have chosen to run for decades to improve his body. What is true fairness? After all, the eyes must look farther. One day, "unfair" may quietly translate into "fairness."
The scenery, people and things I encounter along the way are full of harvests, which make me a better version of myself.
Many people say that running is a lonely sport. Some people say that running is about learning to live with yourself and loneliness. I agree with these words, but when I see the passage described in "Running", I can't help but smile. That was in the 1980s. Murakami often crossed arms with a beautiful young woman during his morning gym run in Tokyo. After a few years of doing so, they naturally became acquainted, and when they met, they smiled and greeted each other, but because they were shy, they never talked, and they did not even know each other's names. But he said: "But meeting her every morning was one of my little joys at that time." There is not even such a little joy, and it is not easy to keep running down every day. "I believe that every runner will experience a sudden period of boredom and burnout, and motivation and companionship are particularly important for a beginner to choose to persevere."
In 2020, after the change of the All-China Youth Federation, we carried out full training for all members of the All-China Youth Federation, and the first training course was selected in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. On the first day after check-in, I went out to run when the sky was dark as usual when I was on a business trip, and I actually met Chen Shangyun, Xu Ruize, Ma Tiemin, Ye Feng, Ye Peilong and several other like-minded friends in the elevator. Subsequently, the participation of junda, Hong Tao, Shaohua, Yingchun, Li Bo and other provincial youth federation chairmen and the secretaries general of the youth federation of some provinces led to more members. Since then, the running group has expanded from the initial team of 7 people in Jiaxing to more than 120 people at present. As a communication platform, running allows more and more members to "run" to meet friends, encourage each other, and grow together. For the staff of the Secretariat, the situation of the members has also become richer, more three-dimensional and fresh from the original experience, honor and strengths that have no temperature on paper, which is conducive to building more targeted platforms to play the role of the members, so that the organization can play a greater efficiency.
I see the responsibility of the country when it needs it. The daily communication tool of the All-Youth Running Group is the WeChat group, and each person has finished punching, recording, and solitaire. Some members have been clocking in irregularly for a period of time, and the administrator will ask what the situation is. From this, we got to know Chairman Luo Yilong, who shouldered the heavy responsibility of epidemic prevention and control in Macao, coordinated nucleic acid testing for all staff many times under great pressure and always rushed to the front line; Liu Juyuan, a post-90s nurse who chose to go backwards without hesitation during the epidemic in Wuhan and rushed to wherever there was a need after returning to Beijing, regardless of weekends and nights; Chen Chong, who generously donated money to purchase disaster relief, living, medical and other materials for disaster relief, life and medical treatment at the first time, whether it was the epidemic or the disaster; and said that he stayed in his residence during the epidemic. At the same time, it does not add trouble to the motherland, but also actively organizes local students and Overseas Chinese to fight the epidemic Guo Lei, Zhong Lei, Zhan Xiuchen...
I see the dedication in my job. There are several excellent doctors in the running group, the top ophthalmologist in China, Lin Haotian, always clocks in late at night, and Zhang Zhengliang, as the head of the emergency department of the best local general hospital, is always early in the morning. Speaking of the reasons, Dr. Lin said that the number of daily visits is too large, from the doctor's point of view, I hope that every patient can get timely treatment, especially those patients in rural areas who have traveled thousands of miles, dragging on for a day is a day in the cost of a big city! It doesn't matter if we work a little harder. Dr. Zhang said that working in the emergency department requires good enough physical strength, and the reason why I run is to keep myself from dropping the chain when needed!
I see the tenacity of breaking through. Wu Liqun, who is the head of the company, not only likes to run, but also likes to read, which he says are his two biggest hobbies. When he chose to study secondary school because of his family's financial difficulties, he always maintained his thirst for knowledge and set himself the goal of lifelong learning, and the results of his studies also helped him successfully start a business twice. There is also the "second generation" Wang Xiaoyu, as the head of the local influential retail enterprise, did not lie in the "comfort zone" created by his father, but took the initiative to seek change, grasp business opportunities, and take the lead in the layout of the e-commerce field, which has also become an important first move that can ride the red dust during the epidemic.
I saw the true feelings in the hands and feet. In the 2020 Hangzhou Marathon, there were young children along the way accompanied by their parents to cheer up the kindergarten director Zhou Xiangpeng, and the banners they played were "Zhou Dad, you are awesome" and "Zhou Dad cheered", we firmly believe that this is a vivid embodiment of the kindergarten director always treating students as relatives and taking education as a love. The story of Zhou Chong, a welder who was on his way to Guangzhou to find a job, saw a little girl hanging on the fourth-floor balcony and crumbling, and his first reaction was to rush to the front to support the child until the rescue team arrived. People often laugh and ask, has the daily run helped you overcome the problem of complete numbness in your arms for so long?
Of course, I also see more and more handsome men and beautiful women. Many members of the committee lost more than a dozen pounds after joining the running group, and even lost thirty pounds, and some people frankly said that the "three highs" were not high, the fatty liver was gone, the image of the "greasy feeling" uncle was gone, and the "appearance" was improved.
It is precisely because we see that there are so many people who are better than ourselves who work harder than ourselves that make us choose to continue to work hard. As Murakami said in the afterword to "Running": "Dedicated to all the runners who crossed my arms on the roads around the world." Without you guys, I wouldn't have been so insistent on running."
As a spontaneously formed community among the members of the All-China Youth Federation, the running group is sticky and tense, and is an indispensable part of the clean and healthy organizational culture that the All-China Youth Federation strives to build. The construction and expansion of organizational culture, consolidation and promotion require the joint participation of each member of the organization. I hope that the positive, equal and mutual assistance, youth-driven and social organizational culture presented by the All-China Youth Federation will bring you, me, and us full of positive energy, so that everyone can benefit from it for life and carry it forward and benefit the society.
Murakami said: Running has several advantages. The first is that there is no need for partners or opponents, no special equipment and equipment, and no need to go to a special place. As long as you have a pair of shoes suitable for running and a so-so road, you can run as long as you like when you are happy. Look, you're much luckier than he is, and you're surrounded by a bunch of little friends who love to run. What are you waiting for? Let's start running, let's meet a better youth together!
Liu Aiping
October 2021 was written on the first anniversary of the establishment of the All Youth Running Group