“This feeling was the only honesty and realness there was in the world.” For once, he’s doing something that is not done for the sake of something or someone else. “You had to run, run, run, without knowing why you were running,” he says. When the reform-school boy in Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner throws away a race against a rival school, he does so not only to deny glory to the institution he detests, but because to win – even to finish – would be to undermine what he’s come to learn is the true value of running. And this is an idea that comes naturally to the novelist. But Rowlands argues that running, at its best, is valuable for what it is in itself, not for what it gives us. All of us will at some point have explained our pastime in such terms. We run to meet new people, to be part of a team or to impress the opposite sex. We run for the satisfaction of a personal best or for the thrill of the race. We run because it keeps us healthy, reduces stress or brings us joy. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, and Bar Harbor, Maine.Why do we run? In his book on the subject, Mark Rowlands complains that most books about running reframe this question in terms of what use it has. A graduate of the University of Florida’s College of Journalism as well as its College of Law, Parker has been a practicing attorney, a newspaper reporter and columnist, a speechwriter for then Governor Bob Graham, and editorial director of Running Times magazine. He was the Southeastern Conference mile champion three times, and the United States Track and Field Federation national champion in the steeplechase, and was the teammate of Olympians Frank Shorter, Jack Bacheler, and Jeff Galloway on several championship cross-country teams. has written for Outside, Runner’s World, and numerous other publications. He lives in Gainesville, Florida, and Bar Harbor, Maine.

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