What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a memoir by Haruki Murakami in which he writes about his interest and participation in long-distance running. Murakami started running in the early 1980s and since then has competed in over twenty marathons and an ultramarathon. The books title was inspired by Raymond Carvers collection of short s Alternate cover edition here . What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is a memoir by Haruki Murakami in which he writes about his interest and participation in long-distance running. Murakami started running in the early 1980s and since then has competed in over twenty marathons and an ultramarathon. The books title was inspired by Raymond Carvers collection of short stories entitled What We Talk About When We Talk About Love .