Sky Runner, by Emelie Forsberg

Emelie Forsberg is one of the top trail runners in the world.  In Sky Runner: Finding Strength, Happiness, and Balance in Your Running, she gives a glimpse of her running life and spreads a bit of her contagious love of running.  The book is full of gorgeous photos of the mountains she loves to run in.  Her boyfriend and running partner, Kilian Jornet, took the terrific pictures.  (Jornet is an accomplished runner himself, who wrote Run or Die.)

The pictures not only show the beautiful scenery but show Forsberg running and enjoying life.  Every shot captures the joy and love of running and life.  Even without reading, the message is clear, to run, to play, to enjoy.  "RUN OFTEN! RUN FAR! RUN SHORT! RUN FAST! RUN SLOW!"  She writes about planning her life so that she can run every day and enjoy it.

Oh, and by the way, she wins a lot of races, both in mountain running and skiing.  Even though she talks about her training and diet, she makes all that winning sound pretty easy.  In this sense, she reminds me of Jornet.  Both of them grew up running and skiing in the mountains, and both certainly have the genes for distance.  They put in the training hours and miles on the trail, but I'm not sure many runners could follow their path, at least not at their pace!

Above all, even at my slower pace, I can learn from Forsberg's training tips, exercises, and especially her attitude.  For running, and for all of life, this is pretty good advice: "One way to find out if you're doing the right thing is to pause for a moment.  If there is nothing else that you would like to do there and then, nowhere else you would like to be than where you are, then it's right."  It's clear that when Forsberg pauses during a run, she knows that's exactly where she wants to be.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!