You might run for fitness.

You might run for speed. But ultimately, running is about much more than the physical act itself. It is about the challenges we face in life, and how we measure up to them. It is about companionship, endurance, ambition, hope, conviction, determination, self-respect and inspiration. It is about how we choose to live our lives, and what it means to share our values with other people.

In this year-long memoir, which might be described as a historian's take on Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the celebrated historian Ian Mortimer considers the meaning of running as he approaches his fiftieth birthday. From injuries and frustrated ambitions to exhilaration and empathy, it is a personal and yet universal account of what running means to people, and how it helps everyone focus on what really matters.

Book Features

• Recounts Ian's experiences running during his fiftieth year, including 47 parkruns and several half-marathons (one of which turned into a full marathon). 
• This memoir also offers an insight from a historical and psychoanalysis perspective into the things we learn from regular amateur running, such as finding out what really matters in life, why we run, running as we grow older and how it can affect our relationships, including Ian's own experiences of fatherhood. 
• Ian has been described by The Times as 'the most remarkable medieval historian of our time'.