I have been reading Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag Tag of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America. My thoughts about this book were on my mind this morning as I went about my morning chores. I started early because Pete was the motivator. He got up early to plow, so I followed his lead and cleaned the horse enclosure.

The horse enclosure had a lot of manure because it had snowed later yesterday. So I was busy for a while.

Running with Sherman is a great book – the story, which leads up to Sherman and McDougall running in a burro race in Leadville, has several twists and turns, which involve many others. He eventually puts together a team with Sherman and two other donkeys and his wife and a college drop out. He keeps my interest and more.

The book gets to me thinking that I could be running with the horses (again) and perhaps the goats. Key to this is learning how to run in a way in which I will not hurt myself. Now McDougall wrote a book called Born to Run, one in which he explores running pain free. I thought, well, I should read this book; I wonder where I might find it. I thought I might have seen it come through, and thought it was just hype.

Then today, as I was putting labels on, and cleaning the sports/outdoor book boxes, I came across Born to Run. I let out a whoop because, yes, I found the book that I was looking for. Tonight, I went online, and in an interview that McDougall had with John Stewart, it was mentioned that in North American there’s a tribe of Natives who run shoeless or with limited soles on their feet.

Another person who coached McDougall advocated doing sprints and running up hills.

I could do as I did before and alternate running and riding the horses.

I am going to read what I can of McDougall’s findings on running, and review Katie Bowman’s books on movement.

Today I also came across some good books on making the mind/body connection, one of which is on counting, movement, and math.

I do need time, and right now I should take advantage of the fact that we have a lot of books coming in. We will be getting books in from the School District, but this might not be for another week or so.

Anyhow, my reading this book got me to thinking that I could run again, and run with the horses. And these thoughts did get in a way a bit of things that I needed to get done.

I did get tickets for tonight’s Valley Arts Performance, and we went to see the play Rex’s Ex’s. And I did get matt board, and we did get the cork board ready to put on the wall. It will get done on Monday because the drill bit did not go through the side brackets.

And I did go to Rotary and I learned all about the wonderful things the Friends of the Wasilla Library are doing to promote reading in the Wasilla/Palmer community.

Tomorrow, I resume hunting down bookcases.

Next: 51. 2/20/26: The International Cat Yearbook