The Extra Mile - Book Review

Quick running recap for the week! First half of the week is here.

Thursday: 8.13 miles, tempo
Friday: 8.13 miles, hills
Saturday: 2.2 km swim
Sunday: 12.01 miles

I hit 45.67 miles for the week and 2.2 km of swimming.  I was just shy of my goal (4km swimming) because I woke up exhausted on Monday morning and skipped a run.  Because I had flag football in the evening, I couldn't get a swim workout in and I was too tired all week to do a double workout day.  Oh well, I am still very happy to have run 45+ miles two weeks in a row and the swimming is secondary.  There are two weeks left in August, so hopefully I can keep this base going!

Yesterday we had the most awesome and welcome sight in all of Austin, heavy rain!  We didn't get a single drop of rain all of August  2011, so this made for a nice change.  The rain cooled things down here considerably and it carried over to my long run this morning; I had cloud cover the entire time and the temp when I finished was 71, about 10 degrees cooler than usual.  I noticed a huge difference in the way I felt while running (better, obviously) and that gives me hope that a) I will make it through the heat of the summer and b) running will get easier and more enjoyable as the weather cools down.  Don't worry though, my clothes were still sopping wet when I finished.  It might have been low 70s, but it was still 100% humidity.

Today I want to review The Extra Mile by ultrarunner extraordinaire Pam Reed.  You can find her official website for the book here.  Full disclosure, I actually read this book several months ago and hadn't found the time to write up my thoughts until now.

Pam Reed is an elite ultrarunner who lives in Tuscon, AZ.  She was born in 1961 in Michigan.  She is the race director for the Tuscon marathon and has set multiple course and world records in ultra distance events including 24 hour races.  She is probably best known for winning the 135 mile Badwater Ultramarathon in 2002 and again in 2003 (146 miles when she first ran it).  What is most spectacular about these achievements at Badwater is that is marked the first time a woman won the event outright.  This book details her running achievements and lifestyle up to the time it was written/published (2007).

The majority of the book focuses on Pam's running career, and especially the 5-7 years before the book was published.  There are some details about her upbringing, marriage, and family life peppered in for effect, but this plays a minor role in the book.  Pam predominantly discusses her motivation for running, interest in running long distances and then personal accounts of many specific races she participated in.  One problem I had with the book is that it is not entirely chronological and jumps around a bit.  Nonetheless, I did find her account of specific races to be very interesting and good story telling.  However, overall, I would have to give her low marks for her prose, which is choppy and very stream of consciousness.  I would say she is an average writer at best, and although all the details are there, it just doesn't read as well as it should.

The highlight of the book is definitely her accounts the Badwater Ultramarathon.  She is obviously a very talented and amazing endurance runner, which makes her a unique and admirable character in her own story, and is the primary reason I enjoyed reading The Extra Mile.  As a female runner, I am particularly intrigued to learn more about those circumstances under which women are faster than their male counterparts.  Here is an interesting article about it in Runner's World, but basically at long distances, the physical (smaller, carry higher % of fat) and mental attributes of women (better pain tolerance, focus on long term goals) become advantageous.

I would rate this book 3 stars.  As mentioned above, I had problems with the prose and quality of writing.  That being said, it is an easy read and she is an interesting character that is worth learning more about and her experiences definitely interested me.  I'm not raving about it to my friends and bugging them to read it, but I think nearly all running enthusiasts would find it enjoyable and easy to get through.

Let me know if you read it and what your thoughts are!

Marathon Woman Book Review

Running related books are by no means the only thing I read, nor the majority of what I read (although if more were available that part might change), but I do love a good biography of a running legend.  You may have noticed I added a page to this blog entitled “Running Books”.  These are all the running related books that I have read, and as I read more, I will add them, along with a review of the book.  I am not sure if I will go back and do reviews of the books I have already read long ago, mostly because my memory may not do the books justice, but at this point, it’s a possibility.

There are many reasons that my family, friends and even strangers think I’m weird.  One of them is because I like to read books about running in my free time.  They don’t understand why it would interest me, but this passion is all encompassing.  I get even weirder looks when my labmates find out I’m listening to running related podcasts while I do benchwork.  What can I say?

Switzer in the iconic 1967 Boston race

Recently, I read Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer.  She is quite iconic in the running world, having been the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1967.  What may be even more famous are the pictures of race director Jock Semple trying to get her out of his race (once he realized she was a woman) and rip the race number off her clothing.  This book chronicles the life and career of Switzer, starting in her childhood and ending shortly after a women’s marathon was added to the Olympics (1984). 

I really enjoyed this book and give it 4 out of 5 stars.  I thought it was an excellent mix of historical information that was cleverly woven such that a true plot and story shone through.  Sometimes this is hard in non-fiction, but Switzer did a great job.  The most interesting parts for me were her early running career, mixed with a very busy and challenging personal life.  Roughly the first half of the book is devoted to this.  The second focuses on her career in the running world and the intricate and important role she played in the evolution of women’s running.  Switzer was probably the most important woman in running at the time, traveled the world and started up hundreds of races focusing on women.  As someone who went to high school in the new millennium, I was not aware of the full extent of sexism in sports and learning about this was both interesting and inspiring.  I live in a world where I am treated as an athletic equal because of people like Switzer.

I highly recommend this book and think anyone interested in running and marathoning would enjoy it.  In particular, this book will appeal to women but I sincerely feel men would enjoy it to.