Filosofie van de duurloop by Mark Rowlands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fascinating book, it is clear that the author spent a lot of time thinking while running with his dogs/wolf and is equally determined to write down and clarify his thoughts. There were a few big learnings for me, that put running in a new perspective for me. Mainly, in the Dutch version, he talks about “running is remembering”, remembering what we have lost along the way. A second, unexpected lesson was a way to humbly face the inevitable decay that will set in, sooner or later. The final perspective that stuck with me was its focus on running being a form of play, not of work and how unique that is.
The one thing that would take away half a star, would be the penultimate chapter in which there is just too much philosophical chitchat on his identity and what he is not, to exemplify Sartre’s view on the consciousness. Personally i found it to be just a little confusing and not helping further his main argument of his philosophy on running and its intrinsic value.
I was surprised by the many words I didn’t know the existence of, these really stretched my vocabulary, but again, makes the book less accessible to the reader and prevents the deeper understanding of its contents.