The book I have been asked to review is ‘Why Running Matters” by Ian Mortimer that depicts a man who was coming towards his 50th birthday decided to set himself a New Years resolution to run 45 parkrun events and 5 half marathons in a calendar year!

The chapters are in chronological date order with subjects covered including age grading to his ultimate running challenge. The book gives a great insight why running is such an  important part of Ian’s life and on his reasoning all of our lives who lace up a pair of trainers to go out for a run to a great extent!

Family Affair

The part of the book I really enjoyed is his running relationship with his sons Alexandra & Oliver and his joy of seeing them reach their own running goals. One specific instant I loved was when he run with Oliver at one parkrun with his son very unhappy with his performance and stormed into town after the event, while Ian had run one of the best times of the year!

Oliver while in town checked the parkrun results just posted on the website and immediately had to ring his dad to tell him he was made up for him achieving such an excellent time, priceless family moment!

Competitive Edge

For the record Ian is a naturally talented runner who regularly gets into the top 10% of every parkrun he attends and his range of distances extends up to the marathon!

A term I heard once was recreationally competitive that aptly applies to Ian and I love his running battles with his son Alexandra and other park runners, his strategies he employs in either how to beat them or shadow to get a better time 🙂

Final Verdict

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, finding out another runners perspective why running is so important in their life and inspired me to revaluate why running it is so important to me!

So, Ian I wish you all the best in your running and if you have not already broken the magical barrier of a under 20 minutes for 5K, I have faith that you will achieve your goal one day sir 🙂

Finally as Ian quoted parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt “All we are doing here is building a playground, and if you want to come and take part, you can.” who know’s one day Ian we might bump into each other at a parkrun playground, share a few stories over a post run coffee, but until then let’s just rejoice in being happy in our own respective running lives!

Best

Mark aka Silent Runner