The title of this book is more metaphor than reality. Of course we all stop running at some point. I realize that. I don’t want you to think you’ve been reading advice from a complete nutjob. I want you to seriously consider everything I’ve written.

Run Forever can’t be a literal reality. It is, however, clear, simple, and bold. That’s the way we should all choose to live. Not in the limited world of fatalism but in the open-ended world of hope, optimism, and personal choice.

Besides, there is lots of real-ity in this book. From the beginning I’ve argued for real actions that real people can take to make real differences in their lives. I’ve tried to support everything with personal experience, scientific results, and inspiring stories from runners I have known.

I hope you’ve been impressed with the weight of the evidence. I hope you’ll choose to follow the advice and recommendations that ring most true, most useful, and most important for your own life and running.

Ultimately, Run Forever is a book about quality of life. Personal fitness offers an arena where we can choose to exert control. Our actions make a difference. Let’s just do it.

Running doesn’t come with a “Get out of jail free” card. At times everyone faces injury, illness, and other obstacles. Still, the setbacks are temporary, while the benefits extend over an entire lifetime. It’s lack of exercise—being overly sedentary—that is now recognized as a life- and health-limiting choice.

Perhaps you’ve seen the cartoon. A physician is talking to his patient, a middle-aged guy who’s too large, round, and soft around the middle. The doc has obviously recommended a fitness routine, and the patient has said he doesn’t have the time. To which the doc responds, “What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?”

  

Switch if you must. But don’t quit. In early 2012 I traveled to Houston to meet Herb Fred, MD. He holds the record for the most verified miles—more than 250,000—ever run in a lifetime. Fred, then eighty-two, drove me to his office. There he showed me his impeccably organized training logs and his trusty treadmill. After being struck by a car while running two decades earlier, Fred had switched to full-time treadmill running. We’ve kept in touch since 2012, and I watched as his yearly mileage slipped from 3,000 to 1,000. Everyone slows down.

In October 2016, Fred, then eighty-seven, fell off his treadmill. Realizing the accident could have been fatal if he had hit his head, Fred knew his running days were over. The next morning he bought a recumbent bicycle. That very first day, he rode it for nearly three hours. “Why would I stop exercising now when it has served me so well for so many years?” he asked me. “It has kept me physically and mentally strong.” Herb Fred represents the spirit of Run Forever.

  

Start over again: Like Herb Fred, Mark Covert was an unofficial record holder. He held the American record for running at least a mile a day for the most consecutive days. His streak started in 1968, and ended exactly forty-five years later in 2013, for a total of 16,436 consecutive days. Covert was sixty-three. He stopped because painful injuries had diminished the pleasure he felt while running. The next day he began riding a bicycle, and has covered 6,000 miles a year ever since. “It’s a joy to be training hard instead of hobbling along,” he said. “But I wouldn’t trade a day of my running for anything.” Again, the Run Forever spirit.

  

It’s always too soon to stop: My good friend, teacher, and inspiration Walter Bortz, MD, has spent his life studying how exercise affects the aging process. An ungainly and untalented runner, Bortz nevertheless ran a marathon a year for more than thirty-five years. Even now, in his mideighties, he continues running and exercising with a teenager’s enthusiasm.

He also coined my favorite phrase about exercise and aging. I repeat it more than any other. It goes like this: “It’s never too late to start, and it’s always too soon to stop.”

These are words to live by. They are the words I am living by. C’mon along and join the fun.