Best Books About Running

Whether you want tales of running adventures, runner biographies and memoirs, books to help with your training, or just fancy some fiction with a bit of running in it, these books all come recommended by The Running Channel and our community of runners. 

NON-FICTION & MEMOIR RUNNING BOOKS

Jog On: How Running Saved My Life by Bella Mackie isn’t about going really far or really fast, it’s about how running can change your life in a positive way and help to improve your mental and physical health. It’s honest, compassionate and heart-warming. You’ll learn a lot by reading this, and will have a better understanding of why running matters to us. 

Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith is all about fell running around the Lake District as Askwith trains and prepares to take on one of the sport’s greatest runs: a Bob Graham Round. It’s got a full cast of interesting characters with great stories to tell. It’ll have you yearning to climb a few fells.

Also by Richard Askwith is The Race Against Time, and it’s a perfect book for any older runners, whether you’re just beginning to run in your 40s or 50s, or are continuing to run but feeling like it’s all getting a bit harder. It’s filled with great stories from Masters athletes, and is proof to the saying ‘age is just a number.’

26 Marathons by Meb Keflezighi is written by four-time Olympian (and a silver medallist), and the winner of both Boston and New York City Marathons, and it talks about the many highs and lows on the way to running 26.2 miles, and there’s a lot of valuable lessons to be learnt from Meb. It’s going to be especially inspiring for those taking on Boston or New York. 

Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer is an important book which tells the story of female marathon running from one of the sport’s pioneers. Switzer was the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, and she would go on to organise women’s races all around the world, and push hard to get the women’s marathon introduced as an Olympic event. There’s incredible lasting impact to Switzer’s work. 

Marathon Man by Alan Corcoran is the story of running 35 marathons in 35 days around the Irish coastline. After his father suffered a stroke, Corcoran took on the challenge (despite not being much of a long distance runner!) and his story is all about endurance, resilience and the power of positivity in this charming, uplifting and funny book. It’s not just a book about running, it’s about setting out to achieve something, and overcoming all problems along the way.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami is a poetic and philosophical kind-of memoir of a year of running. You know how your mind flows in a thousand different ways when you run? Well Murakami has taken those words and put them on the page. There’s something in here for all runners to resonate with. 

Out of Thin Air by Michael Crawley is a book for those who want to know how Ethiopia is home to some of the world’s best runners, and what it is about the way they live, train and race that makes them so good. It’s an immersive, engaging book told with authority as Crawley (a 2:20 marathoner) lived in Ethiopia for 15 months to study the runners. 

Adharanan Finn has written three fascinating books about three very different topics in running. Each one is brilliantly told and insightful, with Finn always taking part in his own challenges. All these should be on the bookshelves of runners. Running with the Kenyans will tell you all about what it’s like to live and train as a Kenyan runner, and why they are the best long distance runners in the world. The Way of the Runner is about the incredible running culture of Japan, and in particular the ekiden. You’ll get to learn a lot more about a running culture that few people outside of Japan had heard about before Finn wrote this book. The Rise of the Ultrarunners tells us crazy and inspiring stories from people who like to run really, really far. It gets into the mindset of what it takes to be an ultrarunner. 

Personal Best by Adele Roberts starts with a cancer diagnosis and ends with a running world record. It’s a moving and inspirational book about overcoming great setbacks and doing it with a positive outlook. If you want to know more about Adele’s story, then Sarah and Rick spoke to her for TRC Meets.

The great Czech runner Emil Zátopek has inspired several excellent books about his infamous training, his running success, and his life away from running in communist era Czechoslovakia. Today We Die A Little: The Rise & Fall of Emil Zátopek by Richard Askwith and Endurance: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Emil Zátopek by Rick Broadbent were released almost simultaneously, and while they ultimately tell the story of one man, they do so in a different way, and both share fascinating insights into becoming a great champion despite significant adversity.

Two Hours: The Quest To Run The Impossible Marathon by Ed Caesar looks into everything that it might take to run a 1:59 marathon, culminating in the first sub-two hour marathon attempt. It’s a brilliantly told study of endurance and human limits.

Iron War: Dave Allen, Mark Scott, and The Greatest Race Ever Run by Matt Fitzgerald is about Ironman, but running is a pretty big part of that so it makes the list. It also deserves to be here because it’s a captivating story of the rivalry between Dave Allen and Mark Scott. It’s a superb character portrayal of the two men, and a thrilling description of the race of their lives – it’s rare to be enthralled like this by reading about a race which took over eight hours.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is arguably the best-known book about running on this list. It’s one of those books which transcends runners, and is rightly a best-seller. McDougall learns about the Tarahumara tribe and organises a race between them and some elite US ultrarunners, but this book is about much more than just the race, and is a fascinating study of humans and why we run. 

BEST RUNNING FICTION BOOKS

Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr is perhaps the most famous fiction book about running, and is a story of the kind of devotion and discipline that it takes to become great. It involves some of the best descriptions you’ll read about what hard training is really like and it’s an easy read and a cult classic for runners. Parker has also written a sequel (Again To Carthage) and prequel (Racing the Rain). 

The Long Walk by Stephen King is about walking and not running, but there are elements of modern ultra-endurance in this dystopian horror which sees 100 young men take part in the annual Long Walk, a last-man-standing competition in which they have to walk four miles per hour in a race with no finish line. There’s only one winner and if you fall back, you’re out – forever.

BEST SCIENCE & REFERENCE RUNNING BOOKS

If you want to know the full social history of running, then you need to read Running: A Global History by Thor Gotaas. This book doesn’t often feature in ‘best running book’ lists and we have no idea why, as it should be considered a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why we run. It goes into the earliest origins of running, how running was a job and how it ultimately became a spectator sport, with dozens of very interesting and important stories along the way. Essential reading, especially for those who like history. 

Endure by Alex Hutchinson is all about what it takes to succeed in any endurance sport. It looks at how we overcome physical and mental challenges, and really focuses on the psychology of endurance. It’s a powerful read, especially if you’re training for a long race. There’s a lot of science but it’s all very accessible. 

Matt Fitzgerald has written a lot of very good books about running and endurance sport, including popularising the 80/20 training method, and writing several excellent books about how to train for races (including Run Like a Pro, Even If You’re Slow). His book How Bad Do You Want It is a great read for those looking to learn more about the psychology of success in sports and how mental toughness is key to winning. It covers running as well as rowing, cycling, triathlon and more, with insight from many great champions. 

The Lost Art Of Running by Shane Benzie is essentially a book about running form (that’s the art that we’ve lost, mostly by spending hours every day sitting down!). This book will have you immediately wanting to improve different aspects of how you run, and not many books can achieve that so effectively. Read this, and your running will probably get better. 

Read Run Smarter by Brodie Sharpe and you will indeed be able to run smarter. It’s a comprehensive, well-researched and engaging book that’s split into two main sections: preventing injuries and increasing performance. It’s the sort of book you can read cover to cover to get a really strong foundation of running knowledge, but is also really valuable if you’re ever struggling with something in your running. 

Exercised by Daniel Lieberman isn’t just about running, but it does go into great detail about the importance of exercise. It covers a lot of science in a really engaging way, plus gives some really interesting anthropological insights into exercise through history. If you sometimes struggle with motivation, or want to really understand why and how we exercise, then read this.

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Do you have a favourite book about running that should be on this list?