diadora reveal ricky and morty themed sneakers | By Women, For Everyone: 5 Must-Read Running Books

Opening the pages of a woman runner’s memoir is to expose oneself to the indomitable power of the human spirit. With this review of recently-published memoirs, step into a landscape of running’s life lessons gained during each author’s distinctive, empowering journey.

The authors of these five books–Alison Mariella Désir, Lauren Fleshman, Kara Goucher, Desiree Linden and Caster Semenya– write with a female audience in mind and often, as in the case of Désir, Fleshman, and Semenya, an intersectional female audience.

However, they are not just writing for women. The phenomena they describe–-the inherent gender binary within competitive sports, racism, or the abuse of women at the expense of their talent– are facets of women’s running that everyone should read and learn about, because if they aren’t raising the next generation of women runners themselves, they’re coaching, mentoring or making judgements about them as they toe the lines at local track meets, major marathons, World Championships and the Olympics.

These are two Black, three white, two queer and one author who does not fit the sex binary. Four of the books are written by U.S. Americans; Semenya is South African, and her book provides the international perspective, where readers are exposed to the wide range of what it means to be a woman beyond Western labels.

The books are technically all by professional athletes, because even though Désir is the sole non-elite runner, her contract deals and complimentary race appearances cross the amateurism line. The races described cover short, middle, and long distances, and they span the full runner’s experience from the track to the road.

Alison Mariella Désir's memoir, marked by academic depth and minimal co- or ghost-writing interference, stands out among the five books, presenting a narrative distinct from an elite runner's journey. While it may not cater to those solely interested in the greatness and legacy of elite runners, it seems an essential read for readers passionate about running and equality in the sport.

As a Black Caribbean-American, Désir confronts white supremacy and racism openly, rooting her debilitating depression in her twenties, which running helped heal, in a sense of non-belonging.

The memoir then transcends a personal narrative, evolving into a history of distance running. Désir challenges the whitewashed narrative by offering a nuanced understanding of the sport's evolution, highlighting the contributions of Black runners like Ted Corbitt and emphasizing the inclusive origins of running clubs like the New York Road Runners.

Using the Boston and New York Marathons as metaphors, Désir explores inclusion and exclusion in the running world. She disrupts the idea of Boston as an earned privilege, pointing towards the inherently exclusionary factor of making runners, regardless of background, body type, underlying health issues, lifestyles, or support networks, qualify with a particular time. She also details the racist history of the city. Alternatively, Désir details Corbitt’s suggestion to have the New York Marathon span all five boroughs, the lottery nature, and the on-course support by many Black-led running clubs to celebrate the NYCM’s inclusive nature.

Her goal in the book is not to point out how racist the sport is, but rather to center Black voices to make the sport more inclusive and inviting for all runners.

Whether or not you’re familiar with Lauren Fleshman’s career as two-time U.S. 5,000-meters champion, her book keeps you on the edge of your seat as she narrates victories, injuries, training sessions and setbacks. Something about her coming up short for the Olympics several times, but maintaining a confidence, competitive edge, and love for running, keeps you rooting for her.

At the same time, through her engaging and accessible writing, filled with honesty and humor that some may recognize from her blog, Fleshman skillfully intertwines personal anecdotes with valuable insights on the challenges faced by female athletes. It begins with describing the first races she lost to boys her age as she and the children around her entered puberty, and extends beyond that.

With focused discussions on media bias and coaching strategies, Fleshman sheds light on the dangers of societal pressures and ill-informed coaching on women’s mental and physical health. She details the high school and college running circuits, describing the search for a coach that understood developing women’s bodies and the difficulty of ascertaining the healthy teams from the “healthy-eating focused” ones. She shares how easy it is to fall into disordered eating patterns, attributing this to misleading associations between weight, race times, and expectations. These expectations often arise from the typically linear trajectories of training and performance in men, whereas women's progressions tend to be more complex.

Fleshman also expands on the frustrations of working with powerful sponsors like Nike (a company that all of these women, except for Linden, worked with before switching to Oiselle), where sexist perspectives of women and what sells products could cause an athlete to lose their idea of self. However, by dictating the terms of her representation, Fleshman shows that it’s possible to not only uphold the authenticity of self, but to thrive in it, too.

A critic could say that Des Linden’s book is just a glorified race report of her fabled 2018 Boston Marathon win. A fan could say that it’s a creative, masterfully woven tale of the way marathon races are a metaphor for our lives.

The pacing in the initial chapters is brisk, almost choppy, but then one realizes that they are aimed at swiftly leading the reader to the beginning of the 2018 race. After that, Linden loops the journey it took her to get to the 2018 Boston Marathon finish line with the journey it took to get to that start line–some would be surprised to know that Linden wasn’t even sure if she would run it. At first, the structure is off-putting, because one wants to continue reading the race report without being interrupted. However, Linden's narrative structure emphasizes the vital component of mindset and mental strength when it comes to competition.

The book reminds the reader that although Linden was a household name after her win, she was an accomplished athlete before that. She also experienced a major health scare in 2017 when diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, a diagnosis she resisted due to the way it can be abused to circumvent doping rules. Struggling with the recovery–both mental and physical– and the training, the Boston Marathon came too soon–a feeling many amateur runners can empathize with, but few are under the pressure that Linden was. Dealing with a chronic condition on top of the typical injuries athletes are confronted with emphasizes the fragile nature of running success.

Along the way, it is fun to see the personable side of running, where one realizes that even elites get annoyed with shoe companies for changing their designs (for Linden, it was the Brooks Glycerin). Readers also learn that just like the rest of us, elites often look for the next big challenge–both Linden and Goucher, with whom Linden now has a podcast, have dabbled in ultra running.

U.S. running’s “golden girl", 2-time Olympian Kara Goucher, made a name for herself as a long-distance athlete on the world stage. She also set ripples across the running world with the whistleblowing that led to Alberto Salazar effectively being banned for life from coaching. As her co-writer, Mary Pilon details, readers initially may see the memoir as just another elite athlete’s memoir. However, her book delivers a powerful reminder that appearances can be deceiving, and it helps shed light on the internal turmoil often concealed within abusive relationships. It’s also a reminder that if people speak out about their abusers early, they save others from the pain. Indirectly, Goucher’s memoir serves as a plea to create empowering and safe spaces for women and all abuse survivors to come forward.

Goucher’s story, less choppy and more accessible in audio format, unveils the subtle yet troubling moments where Salazar’s coaching overstepped boundaries, both mental and physical. It also spans various coaches, races, and considerations of doping, including the contentious issue of the Nike Vaporfly super shoes.

Goucher addresses other issues with the relationship of running and corporation sponsorship, such as inherent racial bias in rewarding athlete success and the deficient lack of infrastructure for female athletes when pregnant, especially Black female athletes.

In evaluating Goucher’s memoir, it emerges as a nuanced exploration of the hidden complexities within the running world, urging a reexamination of power dynamics and disparities.

In Caster Semenya’s memoir, the 2-time 800-meter Olympic gold medalist draws attention to the sexualized and racialized organizational structures of the world’s sports institutions, particularly attuned to the influence of Western principles and labels. Her memoir offers the opportunity to begin to understand the challenges faced by intersex individuals (though Semenya rejects the label for herself, preferring “a different kind of woman”) in a world of sports that may be inherently sexist.

Semenya's story, much like that of Goucher, unfolds against a backdrop of controversy in the running world. As she points out, in contrast to athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, her wins matter not because of her individual talents but because they represent something perceived as abnormal. The memoir traces Semenya’s journey, detailing her hard work, discipline, and the sacrifices she made to become a world champion. Through her story, it becomes evident that her right to race as a woman is not questioned until she competes on the international stage.

While all women experience some kind of objectification, and athletes especially, Semenya’s memoir takes what it means to be objectified to the next level. Her account describes how humanity can be stripped away through physical examinations and media representations. As a Black South African athlete, Semenya also addresses the intersectionality of gendered and racist politics in world sports, as she describes how she became a symbol of postcolonial resistance.

Semenya's writing style is marked by simplicity and bluntness, providing an authentic touch to her narrative. The structure of her memoir follows a dramatic trajectory akin to a tragedy, making it compelling yet difficult to read due to the violation of gender testing she endured. However, unlike Fleshman’s and Désir’s memoirs, Semenya’s book lacks clarifying history and facts. Instead, she focuses on projecting self-love, self-assertion, and the fight for women to compete free of judgment. She challenges the gender binary as a Western conception and advocates for a more inclusive approach in organized sports. Ultimately, the memoir contributes to conversations on gender politics while fundamentally being about a girl's dream to bring pride to her family and country through running.

All of these books remind us of how a sport that can theoretically be done by anyone, with hand crank bicyclists lining the streets in front of all the runners at each major race, has its limits when it comes to inclusivity. We may not have all the answers for making it a fair sport for everyone, but in the meantime, we have to recognize the validity and wonder of the experiences of the women who share their stories.

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