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A review by travellingcari
Running Like a Girl: Notes on Learning to Run by Alexandra Heminsley
5.0
this may be the quintessential “don’t judge a book by its cover”, or, by its title. When I first stumbled on it, I disregarded it as probably patronizing. The “Bridget Jones-like writer” endorsement from The Washington Post didn’t really help matters. I was pleasantly surprised to be completely wrong.
“You don’t run,” he corrected me. “But you’re more than able.”
I think part of the reason I enjoyed this was she’s rather like me. A late convert to running after assuming she couldn’t – and she shared the details of the painful slow start. I’m glad I logged mine so I can see how far I’ve come even if I don’t see it with my numbers.
I’ve been enjoying a number of memoirs of runners in the last six months. They’re a nice complement to the more training focused ones like [a:Hal Higdon|69749|Hal Higdon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314017977p2/69749.jpg]’s and even John Bingham’s. What I especially liked about this is she put a lot of the basics that every running book seems to cover (what’s an IT Band, how to choose shoes, the running pioneers, etc.) into a pseudo appendix so they didn’t drag down the book’s pace. I appreciated her struggles with buying sneakers as that’s somewhere I’ve struggled myself – and am still running in the first pair of shoes. Eventually. I’m pretty sure I’ll never worry about eyeliner, false eyelashes though and I’ve embraced my pink.
I’m impressed how she chose to immediately tackle the marathon and how she was able to fight off inertia following the race to do it again, and subsequently do two more. While I am almost positive I’ll never run a marathon – just no interest -it’s nice to see that just running that distance doesn’t make you any more invincible. And I love that she drew support from her fellow runners, while an introvert at heart I love the motivation of a run group or race to get me off the couch early vs. having it drag out like too many Saturdays do. If only I could do unlimited races.
I wish she’d touched more on the differences between running in Brighton, London and other UK areas (the hills of Edinburgh and San Francisco are self explanatory). I love being by the water, but maybe not in winter. Wonder how much more preferable she found Brighton weather wise unless it doesn’t differ that much to London’s climate.
More: http://travellingcari.com/2017/07/01/review-running-like-a-girl/
“You don’t run,” he corrected me. “But you’re more than able.”
I think part of the reason I enjoyed this was she’s rather like me. A late convert to running after assuming she couldn’t – and she shared the details of the painful slow start. I’m glad I logged mine so I can see how far I’ve come even if I don’t see it with my numbers.
I’ve been enjoying a number of memoirs of runners in the last six months. They’re a nice complement to the more training focused ones like [a:Hal Higdon|69749|Hal Higdon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1314017977p2/69749.jpg]’s and even John Bingham’s. What I especially liked about this is she put a lot of the basics that every running book seems to cover (what’s an IT Band, how to choose shoes, the running pioneers, etc.) into a pseudo appendix so they didn’t drag down the book’s pace. I appreciated her struggles with buying sneakers as that’s somewhere I’ve struggled myself – and am still running in the first pair of shoes. Eventually. I’m pretty sure I’ll never worry about eyeliner, false eyelashes though and I’ve embraced my pink.
I’m impressed how she chose to immediately tackle the marathon and how she was able to fight off inertia following the race to do it again, and subsequently do two more. While I am almost positive I’ll never run a marathon – just no interest -it’s nice to see that just running that distance doesn’t make you any more invincible. And I love that she drew support from her fellow runners, while an introvert at heart I love the motivation of a run group or race to get me off the couch early vs. having it drag out like too many Saturdays do. If only I could do unlimited races.
I wish she’d touched more on the differences between running in Brighton, London and other UK areas (the hills of Edinburgh and San Francisco are self explanatory). I love being by the water, but maybe not in winter. Wonder how much more preferable she found Brighton weather wise unless it doesn’t differ that much to London’s climate.
More: http://travellingcari.com/2017/07/01/review-running-like-a-girl/