Running Like a Girl: Notes on Learning to Run

Great read - can't recommend it highly enough. I found this book in the library when I was starting to run last year. It really encouraged me that I could do it - and I've never run and I'm not what you would call an athletic build. Now I'm hooked, running at least twice a week. I've bought this book for my girl friends who are starting their running journey or who are stalled on their way and I also down loaded it to my kindle.

If you ever thought that you might like to run - read Hemmo's story.

BTW its not a technical manual -

Though I expected training/conditioning specifics for female runners, this book provided me with more insight and validation into my own running than I ever expected!
Much more valuable and enjoyable than yet another "how to" clinical guide!

I am a brand new runner looking for inspiration. This book delivers! It is funny and direct. It is not really a "how-to" book, but it made me feel less alone when it came to starting from zero. This girl knows how to write!

I just started running again after a two-year hiatus and am training for my second half-marathon. It was great to see how Alex morphed into an experienced runner after much hesitation and many excuses. It really gave me the motivation I needed to continue training despite the days I thought I couldn't.

I was captivated enough to read the story part of the book. But I felt like the info part on recommended products and advice on running was a little excessive and unnecessary. Unless of course you were reading this book because you want to become a runner. In which case, I think there are probably far better sources of information than this. I on the other hand was reading it just to read it....The story itself was "eh" at times, but overall a good, quick read.

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 [author:Hal Higdon|69749]’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.

I just decided recently to start running, and also decided that an audio book to listen to while running would be great. I found this one and since I knew practically nothing about running, thought it would be just what I needed.

While it wasn't the "how to" I was expecting, I absolutely loved it. Mostly because I could so identify with the author. I've been a life long couch potato and avid sports hater, and while she was a bit more athletic than I was, I could identify with a ravenous appetite and feeling like I'm going to die after running a short distance.

This book kept my attention so well while running that I'd often hear my app tell me I had one more run left or it was time for my cool down, after what seemed like just a few minutes instead of 20. The author's story has inspired me to keep running. The two things that really grabbed ahold of me were:

1. When she said that after a run, it felt like someone had popped in her head and run a duster around in it - YES, that was so what I need. And after a few runs, I began to experience that as well.

2. My favorite quote: "When someone asked me how I'd done it, the answer was simple - I decided to be able to." I'd never in a million years ever thought I'd be a runner, but here I am, running. I decided to be able to.

I'm listening to this book again, and still love it. I did get some good tips out of it, like buying running shoes a bit bigger than your regular size (on the day I decided to go buy running shoes), and there's good information on injuries and such that I found helpful.

If you're one of those avid, hardcore sportsy types, you might not appreciate this book as much as someone like me. A 44 year old couch potato suddenly deciding to do something athletic needs a lot of inspiration and motivation, and that's exactly what this book did for me.

This book was a happy random the store find; it wasn’t at my library or on any of the popular “books about running” lists I’ve bookmarked. (But it should be.) Maybe you’ve noticed that literature about running is almost always written by men; Heminsley is a refreshing respite from the male-dominated genre. She’s a great couch-to-5k example, but takes it even further to running multiple marathons, ranging from London to San Francisco. Written in a friendly, conversational style I found it an easy and quick read. Heminsley is funny, endearing and down-to-earth, and I'd like to read more about what she has to say (the inspiring, the practical,, and the embarassing) about running.

This is serviceable if, like me, you really want to read about running and all the trappings (compression socks!), but it's disappointing as a journey of self-discovery (and it's actually pretty light on the trappings). The writing was good enough to make me well up during the narrative of her first marathon when she catches sight of her family cheering her on (and her mom's voice is pretty funny), but most of it vacillates between feelings of insecurity, like a LOT of sturm und dang over entering the threshold of a running store (something I don't relate to as an American, i.e., consumer (even being a girl and all)) and euphoric feelings of communal bonding with crowds, other runners, friends raising money for charity.

For a personal narrative, it's not actually all that personal. You wouldn't even know the author is a journalist other than from the flap copy. She lives in a Flat, has had unspecified but universal Heartbreak, and later the presence of a new Boyfriend appears to be noted. I don't need her to spill her guts in a book about running. But she's also vague about her training runs and nary mentions any numbers or times or how she worked up from a 5k on only her second run in her whole life to a marathon. It's all about people cheering her on. She runs a good many races but mentions only one of her marathon times as being '19 minutes more than her intended goal of 4:30.' I get that running is not about numbers for everyone and I didn't read this to read a training log, but it would have been nice to get a sense of progression from what she ran in her first marathon.

Beginning was okay. The more along though, the more self-agrandizing and smug the author becomes, and the harder it became to stomach. If there was a connection made between running and the author's real life, it might be more helpful. It seems like the only thing she needs to do is run...nothing else. Obviously she needs to do some other type of work to make ends meet. Many contradictions...one doesn't strengthen one's arms by running. Perhaps if the author was a better writer, it might have been better...

I had just recently started back into running again, and I picked up this book in a whim. What a great read! The author writes from the heart, with tips here and there - but all in all it was a humorous and uplifting real-time capture of her experience in getting into (and enjoying) running, with all its ups and downs. It's fun and inspirational, and her perspective can apply to just about any sport.

Excellent book. I found it very motivating as I'm training for a half marathon. I would have liked a little more detail about the author's training and I felt that she glazed over the true torture that is and can be marathon training, but the book certainly served it's purpose. The information section, which is the last part of the book, had some really good points in it. This was a worthwhile and quick, I read it in a day, read.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book!! My brother sent it to me as I was just beginning to plan my start in running for exercise. I had exhausted all other efforts - the gym, the videos, the personal trainer. This was the PERFECT motivating book, as now I'm not only running for the exercise, but because I want all the rest of the stuff that comes with it - which I would've never known about had it not been for this book!!

I really enjoyed this book. It was an entertaining and easy read, which can sometimes be rare for running books. I loved her honesty and humor. In fact, thinking about some of her stories has kept me going on particularly difficult runs. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to start running.