The Incomplete Book of Running

(Paperback)

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Peter Sagal, the host of NPRs Wait Wait...Dont Tell Me! and a popular columnist for Runners World, shares commentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you (Susan Orlean).

On the verge of turning forty, Peter Sagalbrainiac Harvard grad, short bald Jew with a disposition towards heft, and a sedentary star of public radiostarted running seriously. And much to his own surprise, he kept going, faster and further, running fourteen marathons and logging tens of thousands of miles on roads, sidewalks, paths, and trails all over the United States and the world, including the 2013 Boston Marathon, where he crossed the finish line moments before the bombings.

In The Incomplete Book of Running, Sagal reflects on the trails, tracks, and routes hes traveled, from the humorous absurdity of running charity races in his underwearin St. Louis, in Februaryor attempting to quiet his colon on runs around his neighborhoodto the experience of running as a guide to visually impaired runners, and the triumphant post-bombing running of the Boston Marathon in 2014. With humor and humanity, Sagal also writes about the emotional experience of running, body image, the similarities between endurance sports and sadomasochism, the legacy of running as passed down from parent to child, and the odd but extraordinary bonds created between strangers and friends. The result is a brilliant book about runningWhat Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity (P.J. ORourke).

Reviews

Praise forThe Incomplete Book of Running

"Sagal is a very good runner . . . and a very good writer. He is clever, warm, funny and engaging."
The Washington Post

The Incomplete Book of Running has been a loyal companion. Its funny, well written . . . filled with humility and perpetually on the scan for moments of stray grace. . . . I would go for a run with Sagal anytime."
Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Sagal is brilliant and accomplished, but hes also self-deprecating and funny. . . . Full of irreverence . . . Sagal is not here to make you faster, but hell make you smile, reflect and perhaps take the holiest of actions: those first scary steps out the door.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Entertaining and poignant."
Chicago Sun-Times

With exceptional wit and self-deprecating humor . . . Sagal is a compelling writer, and his story may well rouse some to get off the couch, lace up their sneakers, and get running.
Booklist

"By turns beautiful and moving, and laced with plenty of Sagals signature wry humor."
MyFitnessPal Blog

"Full of rich observations."
Chicago Magazine

"Anyone whos ever run for fitness, for fun (are there people who do that), for recreation, or to be a better person will appreciate Peter Sagals The Incomplete Book of Running. . . . In addition to taking the reader along on some races and training runs, and giving insight into the importance of a supportive running group and good nutrition, Sagal entertains with sprinklings of fascinating research. . . . The book is full of wonderful cultural references, and Sagal is creative in drawing from diverse sources to stitch together his running philosophy."
Washington Independent Review of Books

"Hilarious and poignant."
BuzzFeed
Sagal has created a new genrethe five-minute-mile memoir. Combiningcommentary and reflection about running with a deeply felt personal story, this book is winning, smart, honest, and affecting. Whether you are a runner or not, it will move you.
Susan Orlean

This is a brilliant book about running, and its brilliant even if you never haveand never want tomove faster than a shuffle. Ostensibly, Peters subject is the physical activity itself. (Feh, as far as Im concerned.) In fact the book is a manifesto on the redemption of escape. And, even more so, a meditation on the direction of flight. Whatever youre running from, youre running to something else. What Peter runs toward is strength, understanding, endurance, acceptance, faith, hope, and charity.
P. J. ORourke

Peter Sagal is the funniest person on radio (quick reminder, I am on television). I enjoy listening to Peter on Wait, Wait . . . Dont Tell Me! on the weekend while chopping vegetables for soup. It will be nearly impossible to do that while reading this book, so if someone could bring me some carrots and onions in half-inch dice, thatd be great.
Stephen Colbert

Peter Sagals insightful and open-hearted book about running will make you wish he was your long run buddy.This book not only demonstrates the ways in which running shapes a life, but also how life, in all its beauty and pain, shapes the run. I loved it.
Lauren Fleshman

Look, everything Peter Sagal says he knows is written on an index card supplied to him by a member of his staff. If he, himself, wrote any kind of guide to running, itd be incomplete.
Tom Hanks

Author Bio

Peter Sagal is the host of the Peabody Award-winning NPR news quiz Wait Wait...Dont Tell Me!, one of the most popular shows on public radio, heard over four million listeners each week. He is also a playwright, a screenwriter, the host of Constitution USA with Peter Sagal on PBS, a one-time extra in a Michael Jackson music video, a contributor to publications from Opera News to The Magazine of the AARP and a featured columnist in Runners World. Hes run fourteen marathons across the United States. Sagal lives near Chicago with his wife Mara.