First, here’s a tearjerker that anyone, runner or not, should appreciate. Thank you to my TNF teammate, Hadley Hammer, for showing it to me. Hadley is a professional big mountain skier–she skis the big, steep, remote lines that would make anyone who’s remotely human cringe with fear. She’s a boss. She also ran the New York Marathon last year, very casually. So anyways, enjoy watching this.
Second, looking for a new medium? A type of book that’ll make you feel like you’re in a video game, but also in a romance novel? [Saga, the graphic novel](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/11/saga-is-a-space-opera-unlike-no-other/383142/), is a must-read. It’s a cosmic escape with a very human relationship depicted at its core. I’m in a book club in Boulder with mainly runners, and very fast ones to say the least, and Saga was my choice this month. We discussed it last night, and I was stoked to hear actual debate on the worth of a art plus words medium versus a standard words-only book. Some prefer words-only, as they argue art leaves you, the reader, no room for creative imagination. I see their point. I also love graphic novels because for me, and others, the art creates a new baseline of a scenario or world. Then personal creative imagination can spiral from there. Some people we surprised at how graphic Saga is. It is indeed graphic, but no more than a P-13 movie. Anyways, my brother Scott exposed me to Saga when I was a senior in college. I clearly was craving an element of escapism at that point in my life and I fell hard and fast for otherworldly graphic novels. I procrastinated schoolwork to read all of Saga and Watchman, some of Sandman, and others. I regret nothing. After exposing my book club to this beautiful, exciting medium, I figure I’d share it here as well. No better way to prepare for a big race than to leave this reality and spend some time in another universe. I’m sure I’ll travel to planets depicted in Saga at some point on race day. Enjoy! Note: Saga, at it’s most frequent, comes out in chapters, and those are really more like collectors’ items. They are single chapters a la a comic. The way to read Saga, in my opinion, is to rent or buy [volumes](https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Vol-1-Brian-Vaughan/dp/1607066017), which contain six chapters. Or, now that it’s already on its seventh volume, you can start with [book one](https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Book-One-Brian-Vaughan/dp/1632150786), which contains three volumes, or 18 chapters. Whatever you do, just should probably just start reading! 🙂  