“Cramps are fake”, is the first line of an iPhone note dated November 19, 2025.

Earlier that day, I met up with a friend for a loop of Prospect Park then finished my run at Brooklyn Running Company, where Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, was having a book reading and signing for his latest publication. Among the scant notes I took from the event were “cramps are fake” (which he said he told his son’s soccer team), “when a long run gets hard pretend you’re a child”, “continuous forward motion”, a Bobbi Gibb quote, and “4 strands”.

Thompson first appeared on my radar a month earlier when I read the essay “Why I Run” in The Atlantic, which was adapted from his new memoir, The Running Ground. It was an inspiring essay to read just four days before my own New York City Marathon—hence why I found myself at Brooklyn Running Company learning that cramps are fake a few weeks later.

The essay, which I’ve re-read more than once now, is an appetizing taste of what readers will find in the memoir. The essay focuses on Thompson’s father and their complicated relationship, while painting a picture of the significance running plays in Thompson’s own life. Although his father introduced him to running in the first place and was undoubtedly the motivation behind the memoir, it is by no means a reconciliation of daddy issues. His father is just one of the aforementioned four strands woven throughout the book, which also include self and physiology (of the sport).

Between commentary on those three strands, Thompson inserts five chapters each devoted to a different “character,” to comprise the fourth strand. Some of these characters I’d heard of before, like Tony Ruiz and Julia Lucas, but it was engaging to learn about the others, too. Thompson has a personal connection to each one, who all exemplify the various ways running can inspire, teach, and act as salvation.

If you’ve ever watched the Food Network (stay with me…), you know that when a chef opts to make a safe, classic meal during a competition—like a grilled cheese and tomato soup, for instance—or when a restaurant has a single-dish menu—specializing exclusively on steak frites, perhaps—the expectation is excellence or even perfection. I can just imagine a restaurant critic pontificating that “if you’re going to have one thing on the menu, you better do it right!”

The point is that the simpler something is, the easier it is to expose any flaws. Thompson even says so about running itself. His writing in this book may be spare, but it is extremely effective. The prologue and chapter one immediately draw the reader in with their poetic prose, and the way Thompson articulates the experience of running throughout the entire memoir is astute and honest. And while not intended to be humorous, there are moments of levity, usually when Thompson quotes his wife or his kids: “it doesn’t bother me that you do planks when we watch movies”, says one of his sons. It sure would bother me!

Despite being the simplest of sports, running manages to ground an individual amid all of the other complexities of life, whether personal or professional. Not only does running ground, but it tethers. It connects us to the ones who introduced us to the sport, who support us on the literal sidelines, who coach and guide us, who inspire us to go further, and who we ourselves might inspire. It especially connects runners to each other by virtue of the fact that we all simply keep putting one foot in front of the other in “continuous forward motion.”

Ultimately, that is what this book is all about; it is a reflection on relationships—to others, to oneself, to running—and how for Thompson (and probably many others) those are inextricably linked. The Running Ground does an exceptional job describing all of these connections, thereby connecting us to Thompson and to other readers.

This book had the power to resurrect my own dormant book club. It was a fixture on my Goodreads news feed and in Strava captions all winter long. One of my best friends, who famously doesn’t read, even started the audiobook this week. Like the spirit of running itself, The Running Ground endures.

Next in the Queue:

• Inside a Marathon, Scott Fauble
• This Is Not About Running, Mary Cain