What do people think about when they're running?

Last year I bought Huraki Murakami's book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". In retrospect I misread the title - I was expecting to find out what he thinks about when he runs (besides being an author he's an experienced marathon and ultra-runner). But I quite enjoyed the book - much of it is essentially a diary of his experiences training and running in races, so for an amateur runner it was quite interesting - particularly his story of re-running the route of the "first marathon" by Pheidippides, much of which now follows the route of a busy Greek highway.

But I was looking for something a bit more philosophical about his reasons for running, what he got out of it, and it didn't entirely answer the question I hoped it might, i.e. what do other runners think about when they run.

Before I started running one of the reasons I didn't give it a go was because I assumed it must be really boring - unlike with cycling, the scenery passes at a very sedate pace and unless you are a top distance runner, your scope to run somewhere much different to where you are now is pretty limited.

But I've since realised that running isn't boring at all, and perhaps as my working life has become more hectic, I've come to really value those hours out running in the park or along the river. It's an opportunity to empty your mind and, particularly on long runs when there are few people around, it's possible to almost achieve a meditative state, helped by the rhythm of the running and breathing.

On shorter runs, or when running at lunchtime after a busy morning at work, my mind is generally more active, and it's a good time to try to think about and solve work problems. Somehow the action of running seems to get your mind working differently from normal.

And of course when you're running there are plenty of more immediate concerns to think about:
- Don't shut that gate don't shut it, don't shut it....aaargghhh
- Is that dog a chasing after runners ankles dog or a nice well behaved dog?
- Is that crampy feeling in my leg going to stay at it is or turn into proper cramp?
- Am I going too fast ? Am I going too slow?
- Is that kid going to run away from his father or towards him?
- I hope that crowd of pigeons stays exactly where it is
and of course, the Voices, which are always saying "Just stop, you know you want to, you've run far enough, you're tired and sore, go on stop".

A good week's running this week - a very speedy 5 miles (8:45 pace) on Tuesday lunchtime at Dulwich, 5 miles again in Crystal Palace Park on Wednesday (slower, but good hill running practice) and another 5 miles at Dulwich on Thursday lunchtime (this time running around in the opposite direction for a bit of variety). And then my long slow run at Greenwich today - 19 miles, at 10:20 pace, which is pretty good for training, and keeps my hopes of running around 10 minute mile pace on race day alive.

So, a 34 mile week, bringing my total to 241.86 miles for the year.