Book Reviews

“Let Your Mind Run” by Deena Kastor – Book Review

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From an Olympic medalist runner and the record-holder in the women’s marathon and half-marathon, a vividly inspirational memoir on using positive psychology and brain science to achieve unparalleled athletic success.

The day Deena Kastor became a truly elite runner was the day she realized that she had to ignore her talent–it had taken her so far, but only conquering the mental piece could unlock higher levels of achievement. In Let Your Mind Run, the vaunted Olympic medalist and marathon and half-marathon record holder, will reveal how she incorporated the benefits of positive psychology into her already-dedicated running practice, setting her on a course to conquer women’s distance running. Blending both narrative running insights and deep-dive brain science, this book will appeal to and motivate steadfast athletes, determined runners, and tough-as-nails coaches, and beyond.
This memoir, written by perhaps the most famous American woman active in the competitive world of distance running, will appeal to the pragmatic athletic population, and jointly to fans of engaging sports narratives, inspirational memoirs, and uplifiting biographies.

I finished this book a while ago but absolutely loved it. I wish I have bought it instead of borrowing it from the library because I would have highlighted and dog-eared a ton of the pages!

The book follows Deena’s running career from the very start when she’s just a kid. You read along as she learns about cross country and discovers she has talent and then realizes that it’s not just talent alone that will get her to her goals.

As you read in the description, Deena employees positive thinking and psychology on herself in order to reach her goals and, spoiler alert, it works!

Minus her initial talent, I can relate to her running highs and lows and liked reading about her journey. I’m already using bit and pieces from the book for coaching.

I definitely recommend adding this book to your reading list!

Add it to your “to read” shelf on Goodreads!

Pick up your own copy!
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The Long Run by Catriona Menzies-Pike – A Book Review

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The full title is: “The Long Run: A Memoir of Loss and Life in Motion”

It’s actually been a while since I finished this book. I usually like to review them right after finishing them so that they are fresh in my mind. I really did like this book and think it’s worth a read for women runners!

An unlikely marathoner finds her way through grief and into the untold history of women and running.

Thirty-year-old Catriona Menzies-Pike defined herself in many ways: voracious reader, pub crawler, feminist, backpacker, and, since her parents’ deaths a decade earlier, orphan. “Runner” was nowhere near the list. Yet when she began training for a half marathon on a whim, she found herself an instant convert. Soon she realized that running, “a pace suited to the precarious labor of memory,” was helping her to grieve the loss of her parents in ways that she had been, for ten messy years, running away from.

As Catriona excavates her own past, she also grows curious about other women drawn to running. What she finds is a history of repression and denial running was thought to endanger childbearing, and as late as 1967 the organizer of the Boston Marathon tried to drag a woman off the course, telling her to “get the hell out of my race” but also of incredible courage and achievement. As she brings to life the stories of pioneering athletes and analyzes the figure of the woman runner in pop culture, literature, and myth, she comes to the heart of why she’s running, and why any of us do.”

I did manage to find some notes on my phone that I took. I wrote that I finally found a running book that I can almost completely relate to. I feel like I want to go to for a run with the author, but based on the type of runner she is, and the type I am, we would most likely never meet.

She does take some time to go into women’s running history and the unfairness and inequality that is in women’s sports. It’s pretty thought-provoking and sends a strong message. She also views women’s only running events the same as me; in that, instead of taking back the streets and running safely as women, they seem to be girly-girl events with loud screaming and a demeaning male emcee (not that anyone ever notices).

I love that this book is finally meant for the slow runners out there, and the outcasts that don’t like run clubs. It’s about finding running as a means to overcome personal battles and work through some tough times. Overall, I think this book is definitely worth a read!

Add it to your “To Read” list on Goodreads.

Snag a copy on Amazon:
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Footnotes – A Book Review

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Well, well. What to say about this book…. I don’t even know where to begin.

I guess I’ll first just copy and paste the synopsis:

Footnotes – How Running Makes Us Human by Vybarr Cregan-Reid

Running is not just a sport. It reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live, breaking down our increasingly structured and demanding lives. It allows us to feel the world beneath our feet, lifts the spirit, lets our minds out to play, and helps us to slip away from the demands of the modern world.

When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running means so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him out to tread London’s cobbled streets, the boulevards of Paris, and down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin’s Venice. Footnotes transports you to the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California, and to the world’s most advanced running laboratories and research centers. Using debates in literature, philosophy, neuroscience, and biology, this book explores that simple human desire to run.

Liberating and inspiring, Footnotes reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives.

Sounds interesting, huh? I think it was. I did read it. All of it. But I barely can recall what I read.

Okay, okay. It’s not a horrible book. There’s some good pieces in there….if you can find them or haven’t skimmed right over them. The description makes the book sound like a personal journey through running. I think that’s in there… somewhere.

On first impression, this book is dense. The chapters, and paragraphs within them, are long and overwhelming and upon opening it, I didn’t want to begin reading. Then, you start… There’s a TON of info in this book. I mean A LOT… studies, personal opinions, references to fictional literary works, and more.

I started off strong, trying to absorb all the info, but it was tiresome. The long bulky paragraphs feel like a textbook and the topics switch too quickly for me to follow. One minute we’re in the author’s personal story and then next we’re following the research of some scientist or a fictional character from a book the author studied.

Maybe the concept of the book was lost on me but I find that hard to believe because I’m a very science minded individual. Topics range from biomechanics, senses, mindset, to the treadmill and how to (literally) run wild and trespass to find a route.

My favorite chapter was the last one (and not just because it was almost over). It was about running and the creativity and freedom it can bring to one’s life. The author tells the story about their first marathon and how he accidentally finished it and about running through different countries and the social barriers to doing so.

Overall, I give the book a 2 out of 5. In my opinion, it seems to me like the author didn’t really know what they wanted to write about and just threw EVERYTHING they knew about running in to this book. The topics jump fast and I got lost. There’s just too much info to sift through. I found myself skimming a lot to find the personal stories rather than reading through the references.

A couple of quotes I did like:

“My running has become something much deeper than a habit or an exercise routine. Now it is part of who I am. It is a part of my personality. I am unsure which came first, or what came from what: am I more self-reliant because of my running, or am I running because I am more self-reliant? The same goes for resilience: I feel like it has taught me how to be in my own company, and continues in helping me to maintain perspective.”

“Running doesn’t have to exercise. it doesn’t have to done to make you ‘strong’ or ‘fit’. It doesn’t even need to be done as a sport – it can be done entirely for its own sake”

-Vybarr Cregan-Reid

Don’t believe me and the synopsis still interested you? Add it to your Goodreads list or buy it on Amazon:

Climbing Free – A Book Review

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It’s been awhile since I’ve done a book review and usually they are about running. Today, I have a climbing book for you!

I have been looking for some climbing inspiration, help with trying to overcome fear and get on some harder climbs. In addition, it’s hard to find fellow female climbers to look up to. They’re out there, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t found them (or the ones I do know have completely different schedules than me so I don’t get to climb with them).

Anyway, I was googling climbing books and I came across Lynn Hill’s book. I had heard of Lynn Hill and her amazing skill before (first to free climb the nose in Yosemite), but I didn’t know much else about her, so I decided to buy the book and see if I could find some inspiration. I brought it to read on my backpacking trip in the Tetons. With an attempt to climb the Grand, that seemed a great time to read it.

The book is fun to read and flows really well starting with her childhood life, how she started climbing, and goes through her climbing career. While, I’m jealous that she was naturally a good climber in the beginning, she did work really hard to improve her skills. She also goes into her accident (a bad fall) and how tough it was to come back from that as well as making a career out of climbing, something she is super passionate about.

My favorite chapter was about her success climbing the nose. I don’t want to give anything away, so read the book to see her journey, but after many attempts, she became the first person, a woman nonetheless, to free climb the nose in a day.

I do want to note that the only thing I didn’t like about the book is that it seems that she talks about someone that died in the sport of climbing, alpinism or mountaineering in every chapter.  She wasn’t there for any of them, but talks about friends and colleagues that were on other trips and expeditions and passed away. That really freaked me out and still has been on my mind.

While the book didn’t really give me the inspirational jump to get back out there or overcome my fears, it was a good read. It did give me hope that if you keep working at it, you can find a career doing what you love. If you’re a climber, I highly suggest this book!

Add this book to your Goodread’s “want to read” list!

 Check out the book online!