We're a running team now: a review of two running memoirs

There’s been a running joke on TBD Slack this winter (that I think some of the team hates, but sorry pals!) that we’re a running team now. I’ve thought about why several of us started running more this winter and I really believe that after 10 years of being into bikes, a few of us absolutely couldn’t take the tedium of riding the trainer, so we ran.

I’ve been a runner on and off since I was 15 years old. A friend wanted to go out for the track team and even though I couldn’t conceive of running more than a half a mile, I said I’d join her. It took me two months to be able to run two miles without stopping. It was a short road from there to obsession. Running was amazing to me as an anxious, socially awkward, perpetually new kid at the snootiest school in Denver. It didn’t require your parents to pay for tennis lessons, or fancy equipment for Lacrosse. You just ran. And the harder you worked the better you got. (Note: I still have my ‘Hardest Worker at Practice’ award from my high school track team)

I ran in college - just Division III, barely making the traveling team - but I was really nuts about running and Kara Goucher (Kara Wheeler at the time) was my hero. She had brown hair like me, she was from the Midwest, and she was insanely fast. In the years since I graduated from college the same year as my idol, I stopped running after I got bored with marathons, and then destroyed my back training way too much for triathlons for a few years. But I never forgot seeing Kara (now Goucher) medal at the World Championships, and being absolutely stunned by how fast she was.

When I rediscovered my love of running this winter, I found a podcast Kara Goucher co-hosts with Desiree Linden. To be honest I didn’t even know who Des Linden was. But I really liked their podcast which is just a conversational ‘what do we feel like talking about’ podcast about running. I pre-ordered The Longest Race, Kara’s memoir, and then impulse bought Choosing to Run, Des’ book, the day it came out.

Note: vague spoilers are below, beware!

Bottom Line

I would recommend both books. They’re both quick reads - I finished The Longest Race in three days, and Choosing to Run in two. I think each of them has an important place in helping us understand both women as humans, and what they went through in their professional careers. When someone’s that fast, they don’t seem like real people anymore. But I think both books really humanized them and as a running nerd, I also loved all the details about their workouts, mileage, splits, and races.

The Longest Race

The Longest Race read to me like a pretty typical, but highly interesting, memoir. The style was conversational - having listened to Kara’s podcast, I visualized her just talking about her memories. That’s what reading the book felt like.

Since I had spent a lot of time in my younger days daydreaming about becoming a professional runner, I was fascinated by the details about how Kara managed running as a career. I especially loved how transparent and direct she was, to the level of writing how much she was paid in her Nike contract, and for specific race appearances.

I wasn’t sure how much new information about the Oregon Project there would be in the book, and there was an absolute ton. I don’t want to spoil too much of the book because I really recommend reading it but I would go into it expecting to be pretty shocked about what happened there.

I came away from the book having even more respect and admiration for one of my heroes. I hope this book leads to real change in the industry.

Choosing to Run

All right let’s get down to brass tacks. The Longest Race is an important book and I recommend it. Choosing to Run is probably the best sports book I have ever read. This book made me cry on the subway. I have made a list of people who I am insisting on lending it to (I’ve already given it to my first recipient and the queue is four more people long). I sent it to my boss (yes that sounds weird but I think he’d like it and he sent me a book recently - a more appropriate book about leadership in business).

The format goes back and forth between a single race in 2018 and a life story. While I found Des’ life story extremely compelling, her writing about the race made me power through to get more updates. This is likely partly because I hadn’t followed professional running at the time and I had no idea what would happen. It was positively gripping.

I’m not sure what makes a great sports story. I think the fact that I didn’t know what would happen was helpful. But the descriptions of the course, the competitors, and what Des was thinking through the race, were masterful. I loved it so much. I hope you read it. Even if you hate running and just love bikes, I think you should.