Running

by Lindsey A. Freeman

Overview

In Running, former NCAA Division I track athlete Lindsey A. Freeman presents the feminist and queer handbook of running that she always wanted but could never find. For Freeman, running is full of joy, desire, and indulgence in the pleasure and weirdness of having a body. It allows for a space of freedom—to move and be moved. Through tender storytelling of a lifetime wearing running shoes, Freeman considers injury and recovery, what it means to run as a visibly queer person, and how the release found in running comes from a desire to touch something that cannot be accessed when still. Running invites us to run through life, legging it out the best we can with heart and style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478017011
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Series:	Practices
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Lindsey A. Freeman is Associate Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
Stride—Form—Cadence—Pace  14
On the Subversive Nature of This Handbook  17
A Note on “Just Do It”  30
Leaving It All on the Track  33
Running Is a Contact Sport  37
Running after Olympians  42
Running Is Your Life  56
Speed Play  58
Personal Best  61
In Training for the Boston Marathon  70
Running the Risk Of  84
Courage, or The Paris Marathon  87
Runner’s High  91
Let’s Let Our Running Be Real  97
On Hitting the Wall and Writer’s Block  101
Repetitive Stress  105
A Note on Cross-Training  112
A Note on Running to Music  114
Big Gay 10K  117
This One’s for the Rabbits, the Also-Rans, and the Dreamers  120
Loops—Practice—Repetition—Ritual  126
Cooldown and Stretching  131
Notes  135
Bibliography: Things I Thought With, Things I Ran With  145

What People are Saying About This

Football - Mark Yakich

“This is not your average handbook on running. It is far more incisive, far more tender, far more uncanny—and reading it will make you rethink what you know about an activity all of us at one time or another have pursued, resisted, witnessed, or even loved. Lindsey A. Freeman shows us that far from a solitary pursuit, running is about connecting to ourselves and each other. From the amateur to the Olympian and from the bodily to the transcendental, there is so much she both celebrates and scrutinizes. And in true handbook fashion, Hazel Meyer’s delightful, ludic illustrations provide the perfect running companion.”

Editorial Reviews

"More poetic than practical, but intensely vivid and personal, Running bounces from pop-culture analysis to academic inquiry, from a catalogue of injuries (including those from a devastating incident in which a vehicle hit her) to an exploration of the elusive 'runner's high.' . . . Running is a worthwhile companion for people who want to be either—or both."

Shelf Awareness - Katie Noah Gibson

"As a researcher in gender, culture and recreational sports, as well as someone who enjoys an occasional run, I find Running truly inspirational, both in content, style and form. It is intelligent, interesting, and well-written. The small format also makes it the perfect companion for travelling or commuting. A good read altogether. I strongly recommend it."

Idrott's Forum - Karin S. Lindelöf

"I found Lindsay A. Freedman’s little queer book Running absolutely delightful and surprisingly validating, as I think many queer sportspersons will. In particular, Freedman talks about how running as a sport of individualism and triumph over one’s own fears or limitations has both mirrored and supported her journey in coming out as queer in ways that made me go 'Oh yes, that.'"

Xtra - S. Bear Bergman

"You can fill a small library with books on running, but you won’t find many that touch on queerness and feminism in the sport. . . . [Freeman's] storytelling, along with her friend Hazel Meyer’s illustrations, chronicles Freeman’s lifelong relationship with running and illuminates the 'unexpected moments of connection and joy that we runners feel when we cover some distance together.'"

Runners World - Becky Wade

"What is beautiful throughout Running is the slow and tender movements through what it means to have a body, and what that body means in all the spaces in which it exists. . . . I hope queer people with an interest, active or passive, in running pick this book up, read through, and consider their own relationships to themselves and to a sport that is so easily made all too simple."

Autostraddle - Niko Stratis

"Running is more than a study of the sport—it’s a fearless love letter to the core of what it means to be a runner. . . . Part-memoir, part-handbook, and part-critical theory, untangling identity, the body, queerness, feminism, friendships, the unknown, failure, pain, control, success, and beyond; the full spectrum of what it means to lace up our running shoes to return to a complicated, duplicitous, and ever-changing sport."

Off - Ellie Jackson

Freeman serves fresh thinking as she applies the speculative energy of queer theory to her own lifelong running journey.

Wall Street Journal - Knox Robinson