Book Review: The Longest Race

In the second of my running book reviews this season, I will be sharing my thoughts on Kara Goucher's groundbreaking book "The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team" written with Mary Pilon and released this year. (Read my first book review of the season about Lauren Fleshman's "Good for a Girl" here.)

Kara Goucher and the cover of her new book, The Longest Race.

To be transparent, Terra Running Company doesn't carry Nike and after reading The Longest Race, I am proud to say that. Nike has a history of troubling relationships with their elite athletes, a muddied control of the entire sport of professional track and field, and continues to financially support banned coach Alberto Salazar.

Kara Goucher chronicles her childhood, losing her father tragically in a car accident when she was almost 4 years old and he was hit by a drunk driver. Goucher grew up in Minnesota, and her family plays an important role in supporting her, but also in her constant quest for a father figure.

Kara and her husband Adam joined the Nike Oregon Project in 2004. At the time, this was the most secretive, elite, and best funded professional running team in the country. Coach Alberto Salazar was a famed professional distance runner and the opportunity was one the Goucher's couldn't pass up. 

Kara chronicles how the experience changed her, through the isolation, the toeing the line of anti-doping rules, and the difficult relationship with Alberto as she found success. Kara makes claims in this book that have never been made public and shines a light on the controversial tactics used by Alberto at the Nike Oregon Project. Kara risked losing everything she had earned by making these claims and opening herself up to scrutiny. 

The book opens with a quote from poet Adrienne Rich, which correctly sums up my feelings on Kara's book: "When a woman tells the truth, she is creating the possibility for more truth around her." Kara risked everything to tell the truth, a truth that hadn't been told by anyone else, and I am so thankful she did. Her bravery has changed the sport of women's distance running for the better. As a longtime fan of women's distance running, I have followed Kara's career from the Nike Oregon Project to running for Altra and as Oiselle's first elite athlete, to her current battle with dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle spasms, that has led to her no longer racing competitively. 

This book is a must-read for any women's distance running fans, but also an insightful read if you are interested in the rise and fall of Alberto Salazar and the Nike Oregon Project. The book is a wonderful mix of memoir and racing chronicles, but is easily understood even if you aren't well versed in the world of college and post-collegiate running. 

Have you read either "Good for a Girl" or "The Longest Race?" If so, let me know in the comments or on social media your thoughts! 

Book Review: Good for a Girl

Reading books and running are my two favorite hobbies. When you combine the two, I am in heaven. That's how I have felt with the wave of women's running books being published post-pandemic. I plan to write reviews of some of the newest women's running books to hit the market this year, starting with Lauren Fleshman's "Good for a Girl."

The subheading of the book is "A Woman Running in a Man's World," which accurately summarizes Fleshman's experience climbing the ranks of the elite running world, paving her way as a woman in a space she describes as 'not made for her.'

Fleshman is an American distance track and field athlete. She was the US Champion in the 5000 meters in 2006 and 2010 and competed in the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in 2003, 2005, and 2011. In 2011, she finished 7th, which was the highest ever finish by an American in the event at the time. 

Fleshman ran for Nike from 2003 until the completion of her contract in 2012, running with the Mammoth Lakes training group and later the Oregon Track Club Elite. After parting ways with Nike, Fleshman was the first professional athlete to sign with Oiselle, a woman-owned brand made for women. 

The book is part auto-biography, part manifesto on the world of women's running. It was so interesting to read about the new and emerging research on the psychology and physiology of young runners, and how boys and girls differ in almost all respects after puberty. 

I started running in middle school, and can relate to the love Fleshman originally felt for the freedom and strength that came from running distance as a young girl. Fleshman argues that girls and women are growing up in systems designed by men for men. The speed of girl's physical development, their relationship to food and gaining and losing weight, and the rampant injuries young women face while running consistently and competitively are all evidence of this.

It is startling to hear Fleshman's account of widespread eating disorders and unhealthy relationships with food in high school and college professional running. The fact that the vast majority of coaches of girls at these ages are men with little to no training on the physiological effects of weight fluctuation is not lost on Fleshman. 

I thoroughly enjoyed "Good for a Girl" by Lauren Fleshman. It is a relevant read for anyone with a young girl in their life. It is required read for anything in a position of authority over girls, including coaches, teachers, and parents. We can and should do better for our girls going forward, and Fleshman's book lays the groundwork for those important conversations.

Purchase "Good for a Girl" at any local bookstore or here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/good-for-a-girl-a-woman-running-in-a-man-s-world-lauren-fleshman/18409279?ean=9780593296783 (I'll always link Bookshop.org, an online bookseller who supports independent bookstores with all of their proceeds, because, ya know, #ShopLocal.)