Running Out of Time

Running Out of Time asks why running matters, and what its history of collective struggle can tell us about living in a sedentary society on the verge of climate collapse.

Running is at the core of human experience. From our prehistoric ancestors who hunted and lived by moving fast on their feet, to our desk-bound selves who put on our trainers to stay sane, human beings have always run in order to learn about our lives and our world.

But the scientists who first studied running saw it as just another form of labour, fundamentally the same as punching rivets. Their mistake meant that, for almost a century, we forgot what it is that is so special about running: it’s not like work at all, but is instead a profoundly human form of exploration and play that can teach us about our potentials as a species.

It’s only by running right to our limits that we find the kind of freedom that allows us to collectively go beyond what we thought we could do. The freedom of running stands in total opposition to the unfreedom of our modern lives, and shows us a way out - not a return to prehistory, but an acceleration towards a newly designed social world, where we can chase down the horizons of the possible as fast as our legs will carry us. In dark times, when widespread depression sees people giving up on their ability to remake the world, that experience of enduring the unendurable allows us to plot a path forward.

Combining first hand accounts of running a really long way with a broader account of human nature, sports science, contemporary capitalism and nihilism in an era of climate collapse, Running Out of Time is a running book about how we can always do more than we think is possible.

Callum Cant is a writer and ultra marathon runner. His first book, Riding for Deliveroo, is a first hand account of class struggle in the gig economy. He currently works as Momentum’s head of communications.