Running’s the unifying power that transcends all
As a kid, my obsession with running took many forms. Yes, I loved to run myself. It wasn’t for any personal glory but it was for the joy of the act , from sitting on the steps to tie up my shoes, glimpsing at the kitchen clock to see what the time was, heading up the road and finding a rhythm, then dashing back inside when I got back to see what the clock said (no such thing as GPS watches then).
I was also a fan of racing, at the track, or glued to the TV cheering on triumphs such as Rod Dixon’s and Allison Roe’s New York City Marathon victories.
My addiction manifested itself in my reading, too.
As a teenager, one of my favourite books was Running: The Power and the Glory, edited by Norman Harris, a New Zealander who moved to Britain and became an accomplished journalist and author, primarily about athletics and cricket.
The hardcover publication featured some of the greatest races of the 20th century. I devoured it over and over and would later feast myself on other works of Harris’. Champion of Nothing, in which he delightfully and desperately wrote of his own quest for running success, and Scottie, the tragic and heartfelt story of Neville Scott, were particular favourites.
And then there were running magazines, including NZ Runner, which I would binge on for the results from around the country (no such thing as online results) and for the beautiful words of Roger Robinson.
Robinson held academic positions in the English departments of Canterbury and Victoria universities, is an acclaimed running commentator and, boy, could he run. In his 40s, he bagged a masters record of 2:20:15 at the famous Boston Marathon. But as a running nerd kid, I was obsessed with his writing about running.
So it was a special delight to get him on the Dirt Church Radio podcast, for co-host Matt Rayment and I to talk to him about his newest book, When Running Made History.
This book is a work of literature, a record of history, an ode to running and an eyewitness account of some of
the sport’s most poignant and significant moments.
Mostly, those important moments are about so much more than running. They are moments when running was entwined with historical events. And Robinson was there.
Like in 1990 when he and wife, Kathrine Switzer, were at the Berlin Marathon not long after the Berlin Wall came down and got to run through the Brandenburg Gate for the first time.
‘‘That was when I first realised this is much more than a sport, this is something really big,’’ he says.
The way that running can bring together so many people to express defiance, resilience, survival, the affirming of life and freedom means it transcends sport or exercise.
Robinson writes about being in New York after 9/11, about being at the finish line when the Boston bombing happened in 2013, and the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes.
But there are also more wider events and cultural shifts, including the boom of women’s running and the arrival of east African runners in elite circles.
And those things reflect the essential beauty of running.
‘‘It doesn’t ask any questions about who you are, or what your beliefs are, or how much money you’ve got, or what colour you are,’’ says Robinson.
That’s the gift Robinson gave me as a running-obsessed kid: the idea that running was bigger than just me, that there were kids all over the world, in all sorts of circumstances, doing just what I was doing. And that’s the gift his book delivers too.
Eugene Bingham and Matt Rayment are hosts of a trail running podcast Dirt Church Radio. Learn more at dirtchurch radio.com or get in touch via email dirtchurchradio@ gmail.com
It doesn’t ask any questions about who you are, or what your beliefs are, or how much money you’ve got.