RUNNING STARTED as a WAY of relaxing. It's the only TIME I have to myself. No PHONES or e-mails or faxes.

I don't read anything electronically. I don't WRITE electronically, either - except e-mails to my family and FRIENDS. I write in longhand. I have always written FIRST drafts by hand, but I USED to write subsequent drafts and INSERT pages on a typewriter.

Here's the problem: I don't like who I've BECOME when my iPhone is WITHIN reach. I find myself checking e-mails and responding to texts throughout the day with some kind of Pavlovian ferocity - it's not a CONSCIOUS act, but a reflexive one.

I get 100 e-mails a day from Americans who say, 'What you're doing is cool - can we work for you?' From Germans, I also get 100 e-mails a day, saying, 'You fat pig!' or 'You're a LIAR and a criminal!' I'm trying to CHANGE this.

Unlike then, the MAIL STREAM of today has diminished by such THINGS as e-mails and faxes and cell PHONES and text messages, largely electronic means of COMMUNICATION that replace mail.