There are two books that impressed me when I was very young. One was 'The Adventures of Augie March' - the idea of having something so generous, and so adventurous and improvisatory. The other was 'The U.S.A. Trilogy,' by John Dos Passos.
I just started running as part of a nutrition program, to just get a little cardio in, but I was not a runner per se before that. I started about March 1 of 2010.