On the Run: Running Across the Globe

On the Run is yet another hardcover, stitch-bound delight from Berlin-based publisher Gestalten, a book that feels as good to hold as it is to read, though no one’s judging if you just want to look at the photos. Inside are runners from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities, including profiles of Mimi Anderson, a fifty-seven-year-old mother of three who holds world records in endurance running; Justin Gallegos, the first professional athlete with cerebral palsy; and Brazil’s Ghetto Run Crew, an urban club taking back Rio de Janeiro’s dangerous streets one step at a time. Adding to the stoke are daydream-worthy descriptions of twenty-five marathons and trail runs, from Greece’s Athens Authentic Marathon to California’s Badwater 135 in Death Valley. Spanning the individual and universal in radiant images and stories, On the Run is two-hundred-and-fifty-some pages of runner’s sweet, sweet high, a celebration of how much putting one foot in front of the other can do for the human spirit.