Running, Eating, Thinking

Running, Eating, Thinking
A Vegan Anthology
216 pp, 5.5 x 8.5, 9781590563489, $17.00 pbk
Lantern Publishing & Media
September 2013   

I like to run. A lot. I mainly run road races (marathons, half-marathons, 10ks, and 4- and 5-milers). I’ve completed one trail race and have run a 60K (again on a road). I’m not entirely sure why I’ve dedicated so much of my last two decades on this planet to running, when the previous ones involved so little of it. But I gain considerable satisfaction from it, am certainly much fitter than I used to be, and have remained thankfully (relatively) injury-free. I’ve put in some good times, and I’m pleased to say that I’m staving off my inevitable decline a few more years. I don’t know how many more years of pounding the pavement await me. I may change it up and pursue triathlons or track/trail running. I may simply elect to run shorter distances and try to run faster. Whatever I do opt for, however, I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

My interest in running and veganism, and thinking about both, led me to edit a volume of thoughts by vegan runners: Running, Eating, Thinking—an homage to a wonderful anthology called Cooking, Eating, Thinking that was published in the early 1990s, and was one of the first books to address the philosophy of food. I think my version might be the first anthology to address the philosophy of vegan running. I also contributed some thoughts to a book by my running hero, Ruth Heidrich, for her title Lifelong Running, also published by Lantern.

Here’s the publisher’s blurb.

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“There are books on food, sport, fictional characters, biographies of the famous and infamous, and writing about almost every imaginable subject. But this is the first book I’ve read that combines the philosophy of two of my favorite subjects, eating and running. What a joy to read what fifteen other vegan runners have to say about what motivates them, their values, and, very importantly, the benefits they, the animals, and our planet all get from being vegan runners! Read this book and enjoy meeting some extraordinary people!”—Ruth E. Heidrich, Ph.D., author, A Race for Life, and Ironman triathlete

In recent years, endurance athletes, bodybuilders, and long-distance runners such as Ruth Heidrich, Scott Jurek, Rich Roll, Brendan Brazier, Robert Cheeke, and many others have destroyed the notion that you cannot be a top-flight competitor on a plant-based diet and upended the stereotype that veganism means weakness, placidity, and passivity. But are there deeper connections between veganism and running, for example, that reach beyond attaining peak performance to other aspects of being vegan: such as living lightly on the land, caring for other-than-human life, and connecting to our animal bodies?

The fifteen writers in Running, Eating, Thinking wager that there are, and they explore in manifold ways how those connections might be made. From coping with cancer to reflecting on the need of the confined animal to run free, from Buddhist ideas of nonviolence to harnessing the breath for singing and running, and from extolling the glories of lentils to committing oneself to the long run in animal activism, Running, Eating, Thinking is a pioneering anthology that may redefine your thinking about veganism and running.