Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a professional writer and an amateur runner. He was born and raised in Japan but spent many years in Hawaii and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a professor and lecturer at Harvard University. He was the type of kid who would most likely be found in his room alone reading a book instead of outside playing with other kids. That trend continued into his adulthood. Since he was not indoctrinated into team sports as a young boy, he had a tendency to pursue a sport that he could do alone. His life experiences and personality made him the perfect candidate for running.

As a young man, he loved jazz and opened a club just outside Tokyo. By the time he was thirty, he was successful enough to hire others to run his club which left the young man with a lot of time on his...