Outrunning the Demons, by Phil Hewitt

Runners know the power of running for healing, therapy, happiness, and a whole slew of health benefits, mental and physical.  Few runners know the power of running like author Phil Hewitt.  After suffering a brutal beating and stabbing by a mugger who wanted his camera, he found solace and recovery from the trauma through running.

In Outrunning the Demons: Lives Transformed Through Running, Hewitt tells his own story, but he also gathers stories from dozens of runners around the world for whom running has been essential to their own lives.  Through his profiles of the runners, interspersed with the interviewees' own words, Hewitt writes about runners overcoming PTSD from war and from other traumatic experiences, running to overcome addiction, running to bounce back from loss and tragedy, running to deal with disabilities, and running to feel whole again.

Many runners can relate to sentiments like these:

• "Always he could come back, determined to quit.  And every time he did, he would put on his running shoes."
• "When [her] world fell apart, she turned to running."
• "Running helped me find the mental strength to carry on."
• "Running is pure and beautifully simple.  You carry with you only what you need, then put one foot in front of the other until you get where you need to be."
• "It was running she turned to in her moment of need, and it has been running that has maintained her ever since."
• "Running gave me the confidence that I so desperately lacked."

I would guess most people start running to get in shape, stay in shape, keep the weight off, or maybe as a competitive outlet.  Runners are also aware of the psychological effects, as Hewitt points out, of "feel-good endorphins, natural cannabis-like brain chemicals . . . that can enhance your sense of well being" and dopamine, which "can provide a natural high."  For many runners, running is a social outlet.  But no matter why people get into or stick with running, these stories remind us of the deeper, more profound potential that running holds for healing.  As Hewitt writes, "Running sets our spirits soaring.  No wonder we feel better when we run."


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