Women Who Run and Write Memoirs About It

Reading

TASK Answer the following questions for each memoir:

  • What is the format for the memoir? How do they tell their story?
  • Why is running important to them? Why do they run?
  • What details about running do they include?
  • How does being a girl/woman matter in the book?

TASK Make note of compelling passages.

Overview:

3 Different Formats

  1. 26.2 brief essays. Non-linear. (Toor)
  2. A Race Report for a Marathon, broken up into chapters. Each chapter opens with a segment of the marathon race, then moves to a personal narrative, description of training and then a race report for another race. (Miller)
  3. Part 1 (personal story of discovering she was a runner) and Part 2 (advice, handy guide to running). (Heminsley)

Why is Running Important?

  • Allowed Toor to belong, to not be left out, to be part of a pack, to connect with men.

By becoming a runner, I was welcomed by strangers as a comrade, and I gained, as my legs got stronger and my lung capacity increased, an increased and more complex capacity for friendship, especially with men. I have always had a handful of women I hold close–whose intense friendships I rely on, where we sustain and support each other. Through running I learned not to be one of the boys, but to be myself, a woman among men. I’m not a small talker. I tend to talk about big things, or speak not at all. Running gave me a lingua franca, a common language to share with new acquaintances” (xii).

  • Toor, Heminsley and Miller also talk about the heart and relationships.

During long races, you think about something for a while–sometimes it’s a passing thought or random insight, other times an attempt to work out problems–and then you move on. The thinking is not entirely linear. After a while, you accept this. After a while you settle in. And then, the mind goes its own way–slowing down, wandering more freely, giving itself over to the body, and finally, ultimately, to the heart (xiv).

Details about Running?

Being a Girl