I describe the ideal of the running form you’ll soon be learning as “performance” because “form” is at the heart of the word. Without form, there’s no performance, full stop.

If anything sets us apart it is a kind of sensitivity. We can hear a faint chord vibrating on old and brittle strings. It begins to resonate through us when we rise predawn for a morning run. The sound builds the longer we stay at it. On a long run through the mountains our attention becomes focused, in tune, automatic. Each footfall and each breat