Better faster farther : how running changed everything we know about women Cover Image

Book

Better faster farther : how running changed everything we know about women / Maggie Mertens.

Summary:

"Despite women proving their abilities on the track time and again, men in the medical establishment, media, and athletic associations have fought to keep women (or at least white women) fragile--and sometimes literally tried to push them out of the race (see Kathrine Switzer, Boston Marathon, 1967). Yet before there were running shoes for women, they ran barefoot or in nursing shoes. They ran without sports bras, which weren't invented until 1977, or disguised as men. They faced down doctors who put them on bed rest and newspaper reports that said women collapsed if they ran a mere eight hundred meters, just two laps around the track. Still today, women face relentless attention to their bodies: Is she too strong, too masculine? Is she even really a woman? Mertens transports us from that first boundary-breaking marathon in Greece, 1896, to the earliest “official” women's races of the twentieth century to today's most intense ultramarathons, in which women are setting all-out records, even against men. Better Faster Farther takes us inside the lives and the victories of the women who have redefined society's image of strength and power." -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781643753355
ISBN: 1643756133
Physical Description: 292 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Chapel Hill, NC : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2024.
Copyright: ©2024

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: women can't run -- But not more than 100m -- But only white women -- But not a mile -- But definitely not a marathon -- But only if you train like a man -- But only "real" women -- What about the long run?