Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land

by Noé Álvarez

unlike any other labor, running relieves me of the weight that I should become better than my parents, my people. I still don’t know that it is okay to be unexceptional, ordinary, unremarkable. That there is greatness and pride to being common, so to speak. But I am learning to believe that it is okay to be flawed, imperfect. Running is helping me to see that.

Like language, running creates us and holds us accountable to the world around us—