What a weird book. I love books about running, but I can't even tell if this is about running. Sheehan was a strange dude. ( )

I just didn't want this book to end. Sheehan's mix of running, philosophy, and religion was fantastic! I said to my friends that this was one of the best theology books I have read and it is about running! There are some dated parts, but overall fantastic. ( )

So inspiring... To get me back onto the road

I'm looking for both spiritual and physical motivation to take the next half of my life by the horns, especially by getting back onto the road, running. I used to be a four-mile daily runner with eight mile weekends. Sheehan was recommended to me as a prophet. That he is indeed. ( )

This was a hilarious book. Crazy over-the-top paeans to physical fitness as the ultimate virtue, wild claims about spirituality and its connection to running, and an insistence that every long-distance runner shares the same totally Asperger's traits as the author. I giggled all the way through.

That said, the sections that are actual memoirs of races or discussions of the nuts-and-bolts of running are solid - among other things, the author gives a dead-on description of hypercorticism while pointing out that there was no current science to explain "staleness" resulting from overtraining.

It's not a book I'd recommend - it's way too scattered, hyperbolic, and dated to really hang together - but it was a funny read. ( )

I didn't know what to think of this book when it came across my desk. Everyone knows George Sheehan is a renowned expert on distance running. Everyone also knows he isn't exactly the friendliest of runners. What I didn't know was how funny he would be in Running and Being. Part philosophy, part psychology, part memoir, and all about running, Running and Being was above all else, entertaining. Amidst the advice about pace, hills, racing, losing, injuries, and accomplishments there is humor, sarcasm and wit. Even the illustrations are funny.
Here are two examples of nonrunning humor: "I was born with the dread that someone would punch me in the nose or, even worse, put his arm around me" (p 26), and "I never smoked. Buying something and then setting it on fire is incomprehensible" (p 47). Crack me up.

Despite Sheehan's "keep away" attitude I found his advice to be warm, solid and comforting. If words could actually be all those things. I consider his expertise on the subject of putting one foot in front of another to be priceless.