RUNNER'S HIGH

A journalist discovers running while high—and discovers he’s not the only one who enjoys it.

Readers may be surprised by the overlap between the running community and weed culture. In his nonfiction debut, investigative journalist Hesse, who has written extensively about marijuana news, upends numerous misconceptions about cannabis and well-being. After a lifelong antipathy toward sports, the author turned away from drinking and smoking (cigarettes) in favor of running and getting high. Weed helped him find the groove and pleasure of running, but when he signed up for his first marathon, he didn’t yet know about “the hand-in-glove relationship between pot and sports.” As he began to notice how many other runners ingested marijuana, his reporting instincts led him deep into medical research, the long history of global cannabis use, the criminalization and ongoing trend toward legalization in the U.S., and the retrograde treatment the drug receives from the governing bodies of the sports world. This last is key. One takeaway from the book is that athletes in all sports use cannabis in one form or another at extraordinary rates. NBA and NFL players have estimated cannabis use at above 80% of players despite the drug still being banned. The reasons for use are myriad, but of particular interest to runners may be the relationship between the runner’s high and marijuana high. The cannabinoids we ingest in drug form are so chemically similar to the endocannabinoids our bodies naturally produce when running that for many runners, there is a kind of experiential convergence when the two practices are combined. To be sure, this is a work of advocacy, but—jokes aside—it’s a sober one. Hesse is circumspect in his enthusiasm, reminding readers that he’s “just a guy who likes to get stoned and run."

An eye-opening and potentially mind-expanding read for runners and stoners alike, not to mention the culturally curious.