The 26.2 miles that compromise every marathon course is the ultimate test of physical and mental endurance. While runners spend countless hours training their bodies for the rigors of the marathon, they often unintentionally neglect the psychological aspect of their training. Conditioning the mind to think for success can ultimately decide a runner's fate on marathon day. Grateful Running provides unique and proven mental toughness training strategies designed to help runners realize their potential, overcome perceived limitations, handle adversity, and embrace the challenge of the marathon. [From back cover].

The 26.2 miles that comprise every marathon course is the ultimate test of physical and mental endurance. While runners spend countless hours training their bodies for the rigors of the marathon, they often unintentionally neglect the psychological aspect of their training. Conditioning the mind to think for success can ultimately decide a runner's fate on marathon day. Grateful Running provides unique and distinctive mental training strategies designed to help runners realize their potential, overcome perceived limitations, handle adversity, and embrace the challenge of the marathon. Through the evocative lyrics of the Grateful Dead, runners will learn how to let their minds take them further.

Grateful Running: Mental Training for the Long Distance Runner

From the best-selling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark, a rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running, and the integral impact both have made on his life. In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Haruki Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a slew of critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and includes settings ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvellous lens of sport emerges a cornucopia of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs and the experience, after the age of fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in distance running.

Turning 50 years old and facing some of life’s biggest questions are daunting challenges. A crisis of faith and crisis of health lead towards significant changes in one’s life. For Bruce Matson, a family man with a successful law practice, the struggles of health and doubt led to action. Combining to podcasts from notable Christian leaders Ravi Zacharias, Allistair Begg, and Tim Keller, careful research and preparation, and encouragment from family and friends, Bruce ran his race for physical and spiritual health. The Race Before Us by Bruce Matson is a wonderful memoir detailing the path of doubt to faith and spiritual malaise to running with God. Come alongside Bruce as he navigates the windy roads of faith and health in his pursuit of physical and spiritual well-being.

Even when economic times are tight, our children enjoy an abundance of material possessions. Yet amidst all this wealth, discontentment and competition seem to be on the rise. Instead of teaching children virtues such as gratefulness and patience, many parents are bending over backwards to get their children the latest and greatest item - or feeling guilty when they can't. With the currents of materialism and entitlement flowing so strong, how do we raise kids who are simply thankful? With simple language, interesting anecdotes, and biblical applications, Susie Larson helps readers understand that although teaching perspective and gratitude to our children is critical, it is not difficult.

A large segment of the population struggles with feelings of being detached from themselves and their loved ones. They feel flawed, and blame themselves. Running on Empty will help them realize that they're suffering not because of something that happened to them in childhood, but because of something that didn't happen. It's the white space in their family picture, the background rather than the foreground. This will be the first self-help book to bring this invisible force to light, educate people about it, and teach them how to overcome it.