Back in 2008 (remember that good ol' decade?) Japanese fiction writer Haruki Murakami published a memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The preface will tell you: it's not a get-in-shape guide, it's not a chronicle of the author overcoming tremendous odds, and it's not even entirely about running.

It is, however, a thoughtful, amusing reminisce about life, challenges, and what goes through his head as he slogs through those 26.2 painful miles. Murakami's memoir is particularly interesting to us as runners: it's always interesting to compare your recollections of what is admittedly a daunting task with another's.

While this book is not intended to motivate readers to get off the couch and go train for a marathon, that's the effect it had on me. The reservations I had, the ones I thought were unique to me, turn out to be fairly ubiquitous. The lack of time, the stress, and not least the boredom that sometimes overtakes me...Murakami's seen it before, and he's put those feelings in print.

The phrase that stuck with me is the one that pounded through my head on race day, and the one that started the book: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.