This book is not about running. It’s not even about dogs. It is, however, a little bit about poo, or rather, the mess we unnecessarily carry around in our own lives. Though Jennifer Luitwieler started running with one singular and significant goal in mind, to train The Dog to stop laying pipe under her sewing machine, she found herself running not just a half marathon, but away from the poo that she’d been unwittingly holding onto.
Approaching her 40th birthday, Jennifer thought running was stupid and running marathons was downright crazy. She thought the church had failed her. She thought she lacked worth because she couldn’t meet everyone’s expectations, let alone her own. She thought putting a writing career aside in favor of full-time mothering for over a decade meant she was no longer a writer.
At first, running was merely a training vehicle for The Dog, to keep his mess out of her house. Running stopped being about The Dog the day she realized she was stronger than she ever imagined, more capable than she had dreamed. Then running stopped being about Jennifer’s feet hitting the ground, eyes roaming the horizon. Running became space to think, to wonder, and to examine her own mess.
Down-to-earth, hilarious and thoughtful, this is a story of redemption told in a voice that is both deeply spiritual and slightly-irreverent. Anything but tidy and cliché, this wise and refreshingly-honest and hilarious book is about what it means to be human. Jennifer invites her readers to “Run With Me” as she chronicles a journey that is deeply inspiring: coming face-to-face with who we are, learning to value what we find within and calling forth the yet-unplumbed strength and potential that was there all along.
