This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running.

0:00Music Welcome to Coach Bennett's podcast where every run has a purpose, where kindness is hard core, where this is about running, and this is not about running. Where every starting line is a finish line in disguise, where rambling still gets you where you need to be. Where pineapple will never ruin your pizza, and the sodas, adult, and not adult kind are always cold, and where there is room on the starting line for everybody. I'm Coach Bennett. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day. Let's get started. Welcome to Coach Bennett's podcast. This is episode 158, and it's entitled This is about running, this is not about running, and it's entitled that because my book, this is about running,

1:00this is not about running, is out. It's in the wild, it's in bookstores, it's there online for you to order as a hard copy book, or as an audiobook, and yes, I did the audiobook narration. Some of you already have it in hand, you're reading it, some of you have already read it, reviewed it, rated it, and I just want to say thank you to everyone that already has it, or has ordered it, or is about to order it. I really appreciate it, and this entire episode is going to be a celebration of all that good stuff. I'm going to give you some behind the scenes stuff about how I wrote it, why I wrote it, the order I wrote it, about the chapters, we got so much to go over, but first and foremost, again, let me just reiterate, thank you everyone for all the support. Listen, this book was written because of all of you. It wasn't written because of me. It was written because of all of you. I am so inspired and so motivated every single day because of all of you.

2:09I get so much more out of this because of all of you. When you come up and you tell me thank you and I cut you off and say, wait, thank you, it's not hot air. This is legitimate. You all, I mean, you give me some faith and you give me some hope every single day that this world is going to be okay. For that, I can't ever pay you back, but I will try. I will be so grateful to be in the red in debt to all of you for the rest of my life because it gives me purpose. My purpose really is to just give back what you have all given me. Anyway, we're starting by being sappy, but I don't really care. All right, September 1st, it finally got here. I'll tell you what, it has been such a long journey from the moment of announcing that I actually wrote a book to now.

3:14I've been anticipating this for so long. I've wanted to get this book in your hands so you could read it or listen to it for so long. Now it's here. The funny thing is I was down moving one of my daughters into college in DC and I was with coach Ben at the greater and we had some time to kill. And when we have time to kill, a lot of times we'll go to a bookstore and there was a Barnes and Noble in DC. Like let's just go there, we'll hang out, we'll walk around. This is like a week before the book is officially coming out. And we're walking around and as we normally do, we split up because she's into different books than I'm into. And I went to the new and noteworthy section for nonfiction. I love fiction. I also love nonfiction. The first place I usually go is nonfiction. So I head over there, I'm looking around at all the new and noteworthy books and I'm having a really good time and I'm checking stuff out. And then there's like a little table of signed copies of different books. I guess they had authors in that signed copies and I'm flipping through there and I'm just checking out their signatures.

4:20What did they do? And some authors just do like a squiggle and respect to them for being able to do it. It's just like a whoop and that's it. And I can't do that and I'll tell you what, like signing copies, like you start freaking out when you start writing the same thing over and over and over again. And suddenly I was like messing up how to spell coach, which is bizarre. But anyway, I'm checking these copies out. And then Tammy comes out, coach Ben at the greater. And she's like, is your book out on the wall? And I was like, no, because you know, I knew it was a week early. So it shouldn't be out on the wall anyway. But I did look. I did look just, you know, just in case. And we kind of laughed and I told her I was looking at the signed copies just to kind of check out how these authors do their signatures. And suddenly she goes, oh my God, there's your book. And it was on the wall. I missed it or I saw it. My brain was like, no, this is too big of a moment. And as a result, you can't see it. You know what I mean? You lose the forest for the trees or maybe I lost the trees for the forest at this point.

5:29I'm not really sure which one it was, which way to use that metaphor. But the point is I had missed it. And there it was on the wall a week before the official release. And I was like, oh my gosh. And the crazy thing is it didn't it didn't totally hit me. I honestly think it was too big of a moment. But you know, Tammy was like, well, you obviously need to buy it. I was like, is that weird to buy my own book, but I did it anyway, because I don't care if it's weird. Weird is beautiful. So I went up to the counter and yeah, I said, I need to buy this book and suddenly Tammy steps in and goes, he wrote it. And the lady at the counter was so kind. She was so nice. She was like, oh my gosh, well, we got to get you to sign the other copies and take a picture with you. And so it was just kind of wild that on August 24th, I was going through this even though I was anticipating September 1st. All this was going to happen. So anyway, I don't know if I've told that story to too many people out there on the road. But yeah, that was kind of my introduction to the book is out in the wild.

6:38But it was really September 1st that the book came out and the night before the book tour kicked off. So if you're unaware, I am on a book tour. And the book tour is going all around North America at this point. We kicked it off where I actually taught and coached history and cross country and track and field in New Jersey at CBA in Linkcroft. And it was really a special moment for me because there were so many starting lines that I crossed there at that place. And I wasn't just as a coach and a teacher. That's where I went to high school. So I went back and taught and coached at the high school. I went to so getting to be in the theater with a couple hundred people that, you know, it was just it was a really special moment. And Tammy was the MC of the event and the lead interviewer. And we had a student and a coach and the president of the school and a teacher there all read passages that resonated with them. And it was just really a magical moment. And then from there, we traveled out to Beaverton.

7:52Obviously the old stomping grounds and we had a great event at Powell's books and had about 250 people there. And that was an amazing night. And then we had two events on Nike's campus, which were super meaningful. I mean, all these events are going to be meaningful to me because I get to be around all of you. And then we were at foot traffic, which is a fantastic running specialty store in Portland. And then we flew to the East Coast. And we were at Paragon Sports in New York City, which was another home coming for me because I started working for Nike in New York City. So that was fantastic. And then the next morning we were in New Jersey at another awesome running specialty store, the outpost in Little Silver, New Jersey. And just last night, we were in Boston at heartbreak running company, which is one of my favorite places in the world with coach Dan and Justin and the staff at heartbreak. And we had this amazing event where the Q&A was outside their store.

8:58So on the sidewalk and in the street, and it was such a beautiful night. It was, it was a really magical experience. Then I got to sign copies and talk to so many of you. And then this morning I was at MIT for the heartbreak Tuesday workout. And that was an absolute blast. And I showed up like I'm not going to run. I'm really tired. But then I just got sucked into it because it was just too much fun to stay away. And now I'm recording this podcast. And when I'm done with this podcast, I'm going to take a quick shower and then drive to Ridgefield, Connecticut to be with Connecticut, Runco. And we're having an event at the Ridgefield Public Library. And books on the common is going to be selling books so I can sign those books. And then we head down to Atlanta. And then Miami. And then we're going to be in Los Angeles. Then we're going to be in San Diego. Then we're going to be in Chicago and the Naperville and then Houston. And then I got to go to Sydney for after dark. That's right. I'm going down under to see all of you in Australia. And then from there we've got the Portland Marathon. Then I'll be in Nashville, Tennessee. And then we're going to be in Chicago for the Chicago Marathon. And we got the New York City Marathon. So the point is I can't wait to see all of you. And if you order a copy, you better believe I will sign your copy.

10:20If you want me to sign your copy and we can high five and we can hug and we can talk and we can laugh and we can cry. We can have such a good time. Because that's what this is all about. It's a celebration of all of you and this sport. So that's where we're at. And we're at those places. Because I wrote a book and I wrote a book, like I said, because I was inspired and motivated by all of you. And the book is called This is about running. This is not about running. And now I can actually tell you all about it. And the first thing you can do is when you open the book, which I'm opening right now, is you can check out those end papers. That's the picture, the illustration that is on the covers, the front, the inside front cover and the inside back cover. And it is an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, mind blowing illustration by Seneika Faudi. And she is an absolute stone cold rock star. And I'll have her link to her art on her Instagram page in the show notes at the end.

11:23But she did such a great job with the end papers. I mean, what I wanted to do is make sure one it illustrated the diversity of our community and our community. This running community has never, ever been more diverse, which is why it's never, ever been better than it is right now. And she crushed it. She did such a good job. And I also wanted it to show just the vitality and the excitement of what this community is when it is in motion. And I mean unbelievably gorgeous. So I will tell you this. If you pre-ordered the book, which means if you ordered it prior to September 1st in the United States, okay, then also there will be a link in the show notes where you can upload that proof of purchase and Harper Collins and Day Street, the publishers, they will send you a poster. And that poster is the end papers. That's what it is. It's her illustration, which is amazing. And there'll be some of my quotes on there as well. It's an awesome poster.

12:26So make sure you do that. That will also be in the show notes. But when you get through it, what you'll notice is you get to the table of contents. And there are 37 chapters. But within or I should say between some of those chapters are some stories. And I wrote those stories between the chapters. Because I think it's important for you to know where this philosophy of mine came from, why I coach the way I coach and where some of my starting lines were and some of those finish lines were. So you'll see that I talk about my start in the sport with at the high school level. And that one's entitled just bring your shoes. It was a way for me to maybe give you a little insight into one of my beginnings. I mean, we have multiple beginnings in this sport traced back all the way to you going from, you know, crawling on all fours to standing on two legs to to totalling to then eventually running.

13:31You know, that's one of your starts. But you have other starting lines. And one of mine was a freshman year in cross country. And that's just bring your shoes. And the other thing is that I really wanted to highlight the fact that there's really nothing that I've accomplished or achieved in my life that didn't involve other people, other people supporting me, other people being in my corner, other people cheering me on. And that was just a way for me to, you know, tip the cap to most importantly my mom in that one. But you'll see other stories in there. And some of them you've heard. But a lot of them you haven't heard or the ones that you have heard, I go a little bit deeper. That was one of the many reasons why I wanted to write a book was because I could go a little bit deeper on some of the stories I've told and I could also introduce other stories that they maybe didn't fit in a run or would have been too long for a run. I know can you imagine that me cutting myself off or being efficient. It's possible. But those 37 chapters too that surround those kind of interstitial stories.

14:36I wrote it in a couple of ways this book one there is a there is a course that you could follow from start to finish and across this course this journey of the book you're going to feel like you're navigating it in a way that makes sense. Okay, I mean the first chapter introduction starting lines and sucking less going straight into the first run and then own your fitness it makes sense right the transitions make sense from one chapter to another and I wanted that to be a part of this book that you could read it from start to finish and it really felt like you were on a journey that made sense. But I also wrote all of these chapters and these interstitial stories in a way where you can drop in wherever you want because depending on what's going on in your life the context of your situation what your needs are in any given day you can just open the book up and say you know what I don't need to start at the beginning.

15:39Because what I need is I need to read about patience or I need to read about recovery or endurance or personal best or I need to read kindness is hardcore today or fast is fun I need to read about progress like I wanted you to be able to jump in and read about what you needed to read about in the moment without worrying about what came before or what came after. So it could be one of those things were again for you you drop in and then you're out or it could be that you have people in your life friends family teammates whatever that that are going to need something maybe they don't need everything right now it's in the book but maybe they need something maybe if someone in your life who needs to read that chapter hope. And what you can do is you can give them that chapter hope and it becomes kind of like a standalone book and it's it's no different than your training I mean if you if you're training for anything a 5k 10k marathon it doesn't matter yes there is the entirety of the training and it needs to make sense from start to finish but within that entirety of training or these standalone runs and they have to make sense on their own without the context of the fact that you're training for a 5k or a marathon it's a Tuesday.

16:57And you're doing a speed workout and the only thing you need to worry about is the fact that it's Tuesday and you've got a speed workout can you focus on Tuesday yes you can back out and see from a distance that this Tuesday is part of a number of days that lead to something down the road for a date that circled on your calendar but when you zoom in close enough Tuesday speedrun just make sense and it's the same thing with the book the book as a whole is a book but it's also a series of standalone chapters so that was one of the reasons why I wrote it the way I wrote it and you know we go back to the beginning of the writing of the book the first thing I wrote was the title that was the first thing I typed out was this is about running this is not about running that was my North star and as so many of you said obviously there was no other title and the interesting thing was that was something that you know early on you know I don't really know how publishing was the title. I was able to talk to my literary agents who's in canavan and then when we were going out and talking to different publishing houses you know the conversation comes up like you know it's just a working title and I said no this is the title title there is no other title this is the title of the book and you know that was important to me because the foundation of my philosophy from when I started coaching back in 2007 officially I think I was you know one of those kind of teaming

18:25coaches throughout my life but it was important to me that the book that the title of the book that the cover of the book established what all of this is about what all of my coaching and rambles are about and that's that yes this is about running but this is not about running and I also knew that so many of you had kind of taken that title for yourself as well with your own running because I see you tagging posts this is about running this is not about running I see that you're writing it down on your arms at the start of runs I see that you've made your own shirts this is about running this is not about running even though there is a there is a merch store to coach Bennett's calm where you can get a shirt that says this is about running this is not about running you're out there making your own shirts the point is is that it's so important to me that we just establish right off the bat that we establish right off the bat what what this is really about

19:29and I'll tell you what all the publishers were like okay that that sounds good to me there is no one that said this is a deal breaker we don't like the title I think everyone understood like okay we get it and that's what informed how I wrote it and what I was going to write about every chapter yes I believe if you read it will make you a better runner but it doesn't stop there it couldn't stop there just like I felt like when I was coaching high school kids that if they left practice and and all they got better at was running they left and they were only be able to go faster only able to go further that all of the benefits that running gives you that have nothing to do with running seemingly nothing to do with running like the confidence that you can bring into the rest of your life the endurance that you can bring into the rest of your life the hope the faith all of those things that running gives you and works you and strengthens for you and challenges you on should go into the rest of your life it was important for me people know like yes every chapter will make you a better runner but every chapter can also make you just a better person can make you better at all those things that you do beyond running the painting the parenting the the accounting you may do the nursing you may do just the living of life the better support that you can give yourself as a teammate as a coach as a mentor to yourself into other people running can help with all of that because running is about running and running is not about running

20:51yeah yeah so that was really important to me as I sat down to write the book that it was established right off the bat with the title on the cover you know what you're getting into and you also don't know what you're getting into because you know jokingly I've had people say to me like this is about running this is not about running what's it about and I just say yes exactly because you can you can take running out of the title and you can plug in something else like I tell people on this book towards not exclusive these learnings are an exclusive to runners really we learn these things as runners because we give ourselves to our running that we challenge ourselves with our running we are vulnerable as a result of having these goals and these wishes and these dreams and as a result of all of that we are gaining lessons we are earning wisdom through our running but that's the same for any passion anyone has in their life if you give yourself a lot of time to be able to get through all of this is a great challenge and the success and success and failure is that come with all of this well this could be about whatever that is for me it's running and when I sat down at the kitchen table by the way I wrote this entire book at kitchen tables

22:18I think I wrote in this book that was not at a kitchen table there were two kitchen tables one in Portland and one in New Jersey where I did all of the writing so yeah kitchen tables I don't know what it is about kitchen tables I mean like I have a desk I could have sat at and I didn't sit at that desk and write any of this book it was only at kitchen tables which now if I think about it that's so bizarre I also listened to music the entire time I wrote it there was not one sentence I wrote in this book that did not involve me listening to music while I wrote it and as you know if you've listened to my podcast or gone on runs with me or read the newsletter music is super important to me I have music around me all the time when I'm driving when I'm cooking when I'm running when I'm taking a shower there's always music on and there's always music on when I'm writing because it's it's not specific songs that make me write it that make me write in a specific way it's just that music makes me want to write and inspires me to write and helps get out of me what needs to come out of me and get on a page and I even made a mix tape a playlist of the songs that I listen to while I wrote this book and I added the songs across you know it's probably about three months of writing

23:44and I will also include that so if you want to listen to this is about running this is not about running mix tape you can and you'll know the songs I was listening to I also talk a lot about music in the book I also talk a lot about pop culture in the book to you're going to get some movies you're going to get some books and you're going to get some movie so you're going to get some movie music and book recommendations in my book as well and you know I mean I think a couple questions that I've been getting on the book tour I can kind of talk about here I mean one of the you know big questions is why now why did you write the book and who is the book for and these are really great questions and I kind of hinted a little bit at the beginning about why I wrote the book and it's because all of you inspire and motivate me and if you go a little bit deeper into the answer it's also because I I know what you get out of running

24:44and I know just how better a version of you you are because of your running because of after a run and I just felt you know since it's not exclusive to running these benefits right as I mentioned it's it's if you're passionate about anything I thought you know if we can maybe let people know what we get out of running you know people who maybe need an excuse to come back to the sport or people who maybe they're not going to come to the world and I think that's the point of the sport they're going to find something else that they're passionate about they can still be inspired by running and they can still learn the learnings we've learned from running if we're willing to share it with them so I was thinking you know you shouldn't have to run 15 K to get the learnings that you get at 14 K I mean like it's just one of those things where why can't we share with people what we found out at 14 K about our nature or our self

25:44or about our running or our purpose and maybe just maybe those people who don't run or maybe don't run yet they will relate to it and they will gain the benefits of what you've earned which I think is fantastic we can share our wisdom so this was a book that was yes it's for runners but it's also not just for runners because what you get out of running if you're a runner you know this can you get out of running if you're running or you know this can help you more than just running so I thought wouldn't it be great if people read the book and it helped them at those things beyond running you know those things that we find benefits from our running and I thought because if they get that isn't the world a better place I know the world's a better place because of all of you and because of the running that you do the fact that you're kinder more open minded more empathetic after a run you're more confident that you have greater endurance like these are things that have a ripple effect outside of just your life into other people's lives which means you by being a better person are helping other people become better people well what if we had more better people helping other people become better people well we're going to have a better world and I thought that I know it's like ridiculous like oh my God dude you wrote a book because you think it's going to help have a better world

27:12yes absolutely that is one of the reasons does it sound ridiculous I don't really care because that's why I coach all of you that's why I share the sport with all of you that's why I try to get so many of you to a starting line because I believe you all will make a better world so let's not limit it to just people that are running right now let's bring in people that are willing to open up a book and cross a different kind of starting line which is what a book is when you start reading it let's get them in on this so that was another reason while I did it because listen as far as I'm concerned the world's going through some tough stuff and we need more people like all of you that's what I believe we need more of you out there and whether you run or not if I can get some people to just be better versions of themselves then guess what the world I live in is better too so I don't know maybe it's selfish and if it is I'm okay with that because sometimes being selfish is a very selfless act you try to figure that one out all right also

28:23yes there is an audiobook not just a hard copy book and that audiobook yes was narrated by me and yes I will say it is a very different experience than the book it's unabridged it's the same words but it's a different experience and I know that because I wrote the book I read the book and then I said the book and if it was a different experience for me it's going to be a different experience for you it doesn't mean you have to buy both but I'm also going to tell you it would be really cool if you did that's all I'm saying you know what I mean maybe get the audiobook and the hard copy book and maybe get a couple copies for other people friends family teammates foes you know anyway the point is don't let me yourself to just getting one book okay there was my 20 second advertisement but I I'm really proud of the audiobook as well I was surprised at how moved I was reading some of the chapters and especially some of the stories that I shared and I it was it was proof that I chose the right stories because as you can imagine I got a lot of stories to share

29:32but I knew that this book being 437 pages was probably not the right call so maybe there'll be a second book which is a question I'm getting now is there a second book and it's like pump your breaks people but thank you for asking and by the way the more successful the first book the better chance there's a second book so we're doing another advertisement to buy a copy and maybe not just one copy all right that'll be the last advertisement all right well I actually maybe it won't be maybe at the end I should do an advertisement to the people who stick around but the point is um you know it's it was narrowing down what I was going to talk about wasn't too difficult because I started actually with the chapters which is uh you know a question I'm getting on the road is how did you write the book well after the title what I did was I wrote the chapter titles I came up with those first and I had you know the stories and the chapters I had somewhere around like 50 55 I don't know the exact number is of basically chapters and what I did was every day I would say what do I want to write about so I didn't do it in order I didn't start with one and then go to two and then go to three and then go to four I basically woke up each day and I thought what do I want to write about today

30:50because I didn't want to force myself to write something that I wasn't feeling at the moment I don't think it would have been authentic I don't think it would have been legitimate I think I would have just been writing words down to just finish a chapter as opposed to I need to write about this today because I want to write about this today and that's how I did it so I bounced around all over the place I can tell you the hardest chapter to write was the acknowledgments by far I didn't do many re-writes this was a really quick process I kind of wrote I got it to the editor the editor came back and and liby burdened at day street was so awesome because she knows I have a specific kind of tone with my writing it's not normal book writing it's very very conversational and she did such a great job you know making sure that I stayed true to myself so there weren't many re-writes at all it was it was the acknowledgments that I struggled with because that was the chapter where I thought you know this is my opportunity to say thank you

31:59and to mention the people that I was grateful for all these people that helped me get to hear because I would never ever have gotten to hear without them and I also realize writing the acknowledgments that what a privilege it is so I've had so many good people in my life because not everyone has that advantage they don't and it is such a tougher hill to climb than the one I had because I had so many people good coaches good teachers good teammates family members friends that that were around I just think wow like I had so much support and that is again one of the inspirations uh in my life is to try to be one of those people for other people like the people that were there for me and that's why the acknowledgments were so tough because I thought you know I have to do these people justice because they were such extraordinary human beings and um yes that was the toughest chapter to write and read that one last

33:04obviously you know a lot of people skip over the acknowledgments I would say because I'm biased and it's meaningful to me and these people deserve their flowers if you could read the acknowledgments I would greatly appreciate it and uh yeah going forward yeah I would I would love to write another book and there are topics I want to write about uh in in in more detail I want to I want to write about what makes a great leader and what leadership really is because I think that's uh something that's been lost uh in a lot of circles right now in the world and I think that's something that deserves to be talked about so it could be something about that or about coaching or we're about struggling I mean there's there's so many different things that yes I would love to write another book about but right now I am fully focused on just celebrating this community and this book and this moment right now I don't I don't want to live somewhere in the future I want to be right here right now with this book and with all of you and uh if you have read it uh if if I could ask you one favor well it's actually three favors one if you've read it and you've enjoyed it please rate and review it I mean I can't even begin to tell you how consequential that is for the book getting around is you reading it but also rating it and reviewing it

34:31and no matter how many podcasts I do or print interviews I do or social posts I do about the book nothing will ever compare to word of mouth you know who readers respect other readers so lastly if you enjoyed the book share the fact that you enjoy the book I again I'm biased I'm very proud of this book I really do think it can it can help people find their way back to starting lines or give them the courage to cross starting lines and do amazing things and one of those amazing things is just help other people find starting lines and cross starting lines because on the other side of all those starting lines is a better world not just for those people but for all people so it's going to be your word of mouth it's going to be your ratings it's going to be your reviews that gets this book into other people's hands it's not going to be me it's going to be you so

35:31if you do enjoy it please rate it and review it on the sites that you bought it from or that you frequent and tell people tell people that you think they would enjoy this book and they'll trust you because they respect you and I appreciate you for doing that so that's episode 158 this is about running this is not about running I hope you love the book thank you all for supporting me and until next time, take care of yourself, take care of each other, and I'll meet you on your next starting line.