I struggled with rating this book. It's the kind of book that brings out the Book Snob in me, and I found myself hiding the cover when reading it in public. However, I also found it inspirational, and perhaps transformational, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in understanding and improving their relationships. I read it at the recommendation of someone I trust, after expressing my concerns about my relationship with my children. Though the book is written with the goal of improving marital relationships, the concepts can be applied to all sorts of relationships.
The negatives: the writing is a little condescending, the anecdotes get way too long making the book twice as long as it really needs to be.
The positives: the concepts expressed are powerful, I would recommend it to almost anyone, and it's one of the rare books that may actually change your life.
For most of the past six months, I’ve been working away from home and family. In addition to the usual challenges of trying to be an involved husband and father from long distance, my normal routines were turned on their head. I consider myself a savvy traveler, and proudly bear with the challenges and opportunities of life on the road with no complaint. (Years ago, my wife and I were speaking with a couple who recently returned from China. Among their first comments about the trip was that it was hard to get a Coke with ice in it. Some people just shouldn’t travel. I’m not that guy.)
Among the routines that I missed (but didn’t really lament) was a regular relaxing visit to a coffee shop. So, I was elated a few weeks ago when I discovered a Starbucks near my jobsite. Since then, I’ve stopped by a couple of times a week, and worked while enjoying a cup of coffee and the atmosphere.
The first morning I fired up my laptop in the Out of Town Starbucks, I saw a reference to a new book by Hal Higdon, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. Normally, I don’t enjoy reading “how-to” books, but I’ve been considering running a marathon for some time. I pulled up the free first chapter, and found myself immediately captivated. Higdon is a very capable writer, which can’t be said for every writer of training books. Within a week, I purchased my own copy, and I’ve been reading it with relish, which is something I never would have expected of myself.
I didn’t run at all until a few years ago, when a friend suggested doing a 5K together. We both were avid bicyclists, and considered ourselves in shape, but I was hesitant to sign up for a 5K. I hadn’t run more than a mile in years. Still, my friend was confident that we wouldn’t hurt or humiliate ourselves, so we signed up. He was half right; we didn’t hurt ourselves. I made it about two miles, and ended out walking and running the last mile, while telling myself I would never do anything like this again. What I meant was that I would never run a 5K again, but within a few days, I decided that I would challenge myself to successfully complete a 5K. I did it, then moved to a 10K, then moved to a half marathon, then found myself looking at the full marathon.
So, I spent most of the summer trying to juggle the demanding field work, and training for a marathon in the Southern heat. I couldn't do it. I was working 12-14 hour days through June and July, and I just couldn’t maintain the marathon training program on top of that.
So, I’ve set my eyes on a spring marathon in the Midwest, and have committed to doing what I can to make this training happen. Higdon’s book is serving as both an inspiration and a resource, which is more than I expected.
