Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900 Miles to Enlightenment
Amy Chavez
Now available on Volcano Press
The book is Chavez’s 900 mile (1,350 km) run around Shikoku, Japan. Averaging almost a marathon a day, her journey lasted five weeks.
The goal of the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage is enlightenment. For over 1,000 years, Japanese people have donned the pilgrim robes and have walked the route to the 88 sacred sites. Amy is the first to have run the entire pilgrimage, a distance equal to running from San Diego to Oregon. The Japanese go on pilgrimage to seek miracle cures for illness, to find solutions to life’s problems, and of course, to attain enlightenment.
Amy slept in bus stops and on park benches along the way and when it was too cold to sleep, she continued running all night. At times she is taken in by locals and serendipitously finds herself delivering udon noodles one morning, and meditating with Zen monks another. The journey is so strenuous on her body she has to occasionally run backwards and crawl. Due to constant blisters, she resorts to–and finds the joy in–running barefoot.
“Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage” is all about finding one’s own way and sticking to it through all the ups-and-downs. It is a story about finding enlightenment through the process of moving through the world on one’s own two feet. [Amy] made the journey alone, but now invites you, through the pages of her book, to join her. You will not be disappointed. Prepare yourself for an adventure of a lifetime, one step at a time, on the way to enlightenment.”
–Barefoot Ted McDonald
Order the print copy directly from the publisher here: