How Running Unlocked My Best Writing — 3 Surprising Reasons Why

Want Better Writing? Start Running

“Writing is like a growing glacier. One eternal grind.” – John Muir

Swap in “running” for “writing” and the quote still holds.

That’s no coincidence. Writing and running share something deep — a rhythm, a discipline, a strange devotion to discomfort. They are, in many ways, each other’s kin.

Some of the best writers I know are runners too: Haruki Murakami, Joyce Carol Oates, Ryan Holiday. I’m not saying you need to run to write well, but I am saying that it probably helps.

I’ve found that running hasn’t just made me more focused or more fit — it’s made me a better writer. Not in some poetic, glacier-melting way, but in very real, repeatable ways.

Here are three that show up again and again.

1. Develop Your Inner Voice

I recently went back and read an old article I published on Medium. Brutal. I spent 2,000 words regurgitating productivity clichés, trying to sound like a motivational writer with life experience I didn’t actually have.

It didn’t sound like me. It sounded like someone imitating someone else.

Writing is ultimately just a conversation with your inner voice. And to do that well, you have to hear that voice — clearly, honestly, without the noise.

Running helps with that.

By mile three, everything else fades out. No Slack messages. No group chats. No doom scrolling. It’s just you and your mind, looping. It’s quiet — but not empty. You’re alone with your thoughts long enough to finally listen.

That’s the feeling I chase in writing, too. In a way, running is the dress rehearsal for writing — just without the autocorrect.

2. Running Expands Your World

I’ll keep this one short.

I’ve never uncovered an interesting story while sitting on my couch watching Netflix.

Adventure is outside. Stories are outside. Writing thrives on observation, and running takes you out into the world — neighborhoods you’ve never seen, trails you didn’t know existed, strangers you might someday turn into characters.

So yeah, go outside. That’s where the material is.

3. Running is My Break From Writing

I’m about to stop writing this and head out for an eight-mile run.

It’s 100 degrees in Austin. I’ll be doing intervals at the track — short sprints with long recoveries, until I hit eight miles total. It’s going to suck. And I can’t wait.

Why? Because writing is one of the hardest things humans have ever invented. It demands total mental focus, and you still fail most of the time (that’s what editing is for). My brain needs a break from it now and then.

Running is my reset button. It’s meditation that moves. It gets me away from the screen, gives my thoughts space to breathe, and — without fail — I come back sharper and full of new ideas.

So, in a backward way, I run to escape my writing. But then, I write to escape everything else in life.

Somehow, it all works for me.