Advent Blog 4th December: Adharanand Finn

A few years back, I became a fan of a reasonably regular feature in the guardian weekend review. It described a man's experience in Kenya as he attempted to learn what made them such great distance runners by living amongst them and running with them. I was training for my second marathon, which was the London marathon, and had begun to think of myself as a serious runner. The articles fascinated me. His writing was unfussy and personal, without being too sentimental. His approach was novel and exciting and he clearly had an enthusiasm and journalistic passion to discover what he could about the great running culture in Kenya . I found Adharanand Finn on twitter and followed him.  @adharanand
I soon discovered a friend of mine knew him through her work at the Guardian. The book launch of Running with the Kenyans came around, and thanks to her, I received a signed copy wishing me luck in the London marathon.  The timing couldn't have been better.  I devoured the pages on the train from Manchester to London.  I found myself thinking more deeply about running,  and recognising things about myself in his writing. Reading it made me feel more of a runner, if that doesn't sound too odd.
Adharanand is another regular user of Twitter and every now and then we exchange comments, it's great to converse with such a well travelled and knowledgeable fellow runner. Because after all, that's what brings many people together, a shared interest.