Book review: Running With The Pack: Thoughts from the Road on Meaning and Mortality

In Running with the Pack, philosopher Mark Rowlands thinks deeply about why it is that we run, and what we get out of the simple yet endlessly challenging act of putting one foot in front of the other. This book also functions as a memoir, recounting the author’s unusual running companions: a pack of dogs, as well as his beloved pet wolf. Through his journey as a runner, Rowlands discusses everything from evolution and human reasoning, to the metaphysical benefit of testing one’s physical boundaries.

The book opens with Rowlands standing in the corral of his first marathon. From there, he revisits some of his most memorable runs as he asks why it is that we are compelled to run. Rowlands reaches all the way back to when he first discovered the bliss of running atop a mountain in Wales as a boy. We then follow him as he comes of age, and travel with him as he lets us into his thoughts during his favourite runs in such locations as Alabama, Ireland, Florida and France throughout his adulthood as a thinker, author and runner.

Running with the Pack ultimately comes full circle when he returns to the starting line of his first marathon, which he is running as a 48-year-old. At this point, much has been learned in his journey, and he’s become an endearing character that readers will root for as he accomplishes his ultimate goal.

Spanning much of Rowland’s life both as a philosopher and as a runner, Running with the Pack is ultimately a ref lection on aging. Many will identify with his ruminations about some of his life’s milestones and recognizing (and accepting) mortality, along with the physical tests that come with aging as a runner. Running with the Pack will give you lots to think about next time you’re out on the road.