Man Who Runs was created in 1963 , and was published in the Fluxus Magazine cc V TRE in January 1964.
The piece was displayed on the second page of the magazine, and was presented as a map of the midtown New York Public Library. The map contained arrows indicating the path to run, beginning at the main entrance and continuing all the way to the third floor and out again.

Critic Lori Waxman, in “Keep Walking Intently: The Ambulatory Art of the Surrealists, the Situationist International, and Fluxus” compares this score to Robert Filliou’s One-Minute Scenario, and points out how race and place deeply affect these scores. Filliou is a white French Protestant with a glass eye referencing a hotel, while Patterson is a Black man and references the library.