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A chronicle of
Rachel Toor's relationship with the sport of running—from her
early incarnation as an Oreo-eating couch potato to her emergence
as a marathon runner par excellence—this book explores the sport
of running, the community it brings into being, and the personal satisfaction
of pursuing it to its limit. Alternating with Toor's account of becoming
a runner are the stories—meditations, examinations, celebrations—of
how runners become a pack. An homage to running, a literary take on
how an activity can turn into a passion, and how a passion can become
a way of life, this book runs all the way from individual achievement—a
personal best—to the world of friendship and belonging, the community
that runners inevitably find. Rachel Toor is an assistant professor at the Inland Northwest Center for Writers, the graduate program of Eastern Washington University, and a senior writer for Running Times. She is the author of The Pig and I: How I Learned to Love Men Almost as Much as I Love My Pets and Admissions Confidential: An Insideršs Account of the Elite College Selection Process.
"Until
I read Rachel Toor’s marvelous book, Personal Record,
I never understood the great passion of long-distance runners. She
takes you on a grand tour of the running life, which goes from hobby
to one of the purest forms that fanaticism in sport can take—ultramarathons.
As any great running book deserves, Rachel Toor’s writing is
swift, disciplined, sinewy, and indomitably strong. It is also hilarious.
The story she tells is a marvel.” |