Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women | Maggie Mertens

Just the other day, I was having lunch with friends, one of whom said, "Can you believe we're still having this conversation?" The context was political, and the attitudes about what woman can, and cannot do, is all over the news. The nominee for Defense Secretary says that women are not physically and mentally strong enough to defend the nation in combat (tell that to the women combat veterans from the last how many years?). Attitudes toward women are regressing at an alarming rate online and IRL, creating a hostile environment for too many after the election. So, yes, we are still having this conversation.

Better Faster Farther is a timely read that is infuriating, validating, frustrating and inspiring. Or at least it was for me, and I'm not what anyone would consider a competitive athlete and definitely not a runner. Mertens is a sports journalist who writes about women seeking to do the most natural movement in the world--run. Women who just wanted to move their bodies were considered to be abnormal, sick or at risk of becoming "mannish." They endured horrible treatments by doctors who had neither sought nor listened to evidence that running or participating in athletic activities did not impact a woman's fertility or her status as a woman. Many of them never even examined their patients, and instead just sent them off to "treatment." The establishment, medical and otherwise, was focused on keeping women in their place. This was the prevailing attitude and practice for many decades, well into the 20th century. [At least for white women. Women of color or of lower economic standing were different, apparently. So imagine how ruffled the establishment became when Black women from HBCUs started literally running away with winnings at track meets.]

I can't recount everything here, it's too good of a read. Mertens is a strong writer. But here's the sobering truth. The fact that women weren't taken seriously as athletes has damaged their health in profound ways. There were opportunities to avoid the pain and suffering but they were ignored. Believe it or not, women ran an 800-meter race at the Olympics in 1928, but reporting of the event (some of which by reporters who weren't even there) said all the women runners had all collapsed at the finish line (not true). Women weren't allowed to run that distance, or anything longer, for more than 30 years. The same year that Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute barrier (and collapsed at the finish line, BTW), Diane Leather broke the 5-minute barrier for women (and didn't collapse). Ever heard of her? Most people haven't.

Today, women with exceptional athletic abilities are forced to go through humiliating and invasive tests to "prove" that they're women. How much of a step forward is that from the early 1900s when women who ran were told they would be less of a woman?

Back to the "are we still talking about this" thought. I hadn't realized how much has happened just in my own lifetime. Title IX was passed in 1972. A woman hid behind a bush and jumped into the starting line at the Boston Marathon in 1966 (and 1967 and 1968). Women couldn't legally enter the race until 1972. The Olympics didn't have a women's marathon until 1984. American Mary Decker is the subject of a harrowing chapter about how damaging training techniques and predatory and abusive behaviors by coaches (I'm looking at you, Alberto Salazar) were/are rampant in track & field, was born the same year I was. I remember now that when my high school was required to provide equity for women's sports, it came with a soundtrack of grumbling (even though our football and boys basketballs teams were historically in the cellar) with swimming, and track & field being the most successful sports for many of the girls I knew. Interestingly, I seem to remember that the swim team was a shining star of our athletic program.

The book ends on an inspirational note about the Spine Race through Scotland and England, along the Pennine Way. I'd never heard of it either. It's pretty amazing--beyond grueling, with runners forgoing sleep, running through darkness and horrible weather, 268 miles for up to 7 days straight. Yet women, those fragile, delicate creatures who were not allowed to run a half-mile less than one hundred years ago, are proving to be formidable competitors in ultramarathon endurance racing. Jasmin Paris was the first woman to win the race in 2019, leaving the men in her wake (by 15 hours) and shattering the world record, all while she was breastfeeding her 14-month old daughter. It took Jack Scott until 2024 to beat her record (by 10 hours).

So, while we're having this conversation, again, consider reading about these remarkable athletes who have already been down this path.