The Man Who Chased Joggers … That title just came to me one day …to be precise on the evening of June 13th 2012.I was going through a rough patch,in despair, I retired to my study ,I was sitting there at a loss…And.Well, from the ether came this title The Man Who Chased Joggers,in the tradition of our -American cousins- I found myself Just going with it.Thus began a 2 year 7 month on off exercise of writing the book I’m told we all have within us (and some would say -in us- is where it should stay 🙂 )
I vaguely recalled a book from the 1970s The Complete Book of Running by the Late Jim Fixx.Now friends,in short Jim Fixx sexed up running / jogging for the masses before running (quite literally ) to his death.
And Yes my book is currently taking the world by calm and is available on Amazon Kindle here : http://amzn.to/2bJ3XTE
but there is more to this than me selling you a book.Y’see every so often Life can appear to turn on us.In my case ,I was no longer professionally fulfilled …and at the age of 49 that ain’t a good place to be.Luckily I’d the love of a good supportive (and ever patient) spouse,I’d also two little daughters to be there for ,and I was…although that precious time was overshadowed by these wilderness years.Then in quick succession key people in my life either became gravely ill …or indeed passed away.Also in life don’t we all come across some complete assh***s ? I certainly did.As I floundered around trying to find a career I came across some real beauts …the kind who are afraid of irate clients,don’t pay invoices but are willing to blow your mind with overtures of IPOs and your share of same.Anyhu …this particular idiot wasted so much of my time,he’d been a player in the pre-bubble e-commerce era but had fallen spectacularly from grace,in short he was toast! .I’d known him before and after.One day over coffee I asked him how he dealt with all the negative fallout.”Well I went in to my garden shed and I wrote a novel” he calmly imparted.All my antennae told me this guy was …a delusional idiot,I wasn’t wrong …but to be fair he was an optimistic one,which is all part of the entrepreneur thing don’t cha know.I’m amused to see he has set himself up as a ‘turnaround expert‘ recently 🙂 …That said, credit where it is due ,when most of us would have been cringing in shame or suicidal notions…this dude was self publishing.I ALWAYS ADMIRED HIM FOR THAT…he wrote a book.I didn’t know Voice Over work would come to my rescue ( http://bit.ly/2giWSwh) so in the interim I too wrote the book.I infused my love of 80s music ,I imagined a guy trying to reinvent himself and I created a book where NIKE meets The Commitments meets David Letterman,Jeremy Paxman,Ellen DeGeneres,Lorraine Kelly .It was therapy it was cathartic …and I wrote the book.
When it all comes to pot ,goes pear shaped and your world goes from Day-Glo to Clusterf***k WRITE THAT BOOK!
Love and Only Love ,
Enjoy the video and Jog on 🙂
Mark Manning
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