Running

by Lindsey A. Freeman

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.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Essays, Theory, Sports

160 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2023

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been waiting to read this exact book my whole life and I didn’t know it!! 💓💓💓💓💓 Wowie

[Monica Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

the only book i have managed to make my way through this semester and what a delight. A book about running and book about academia, it’s perfect for me :)

I’ve been saving this one for a year, waiting to read it as I was running again. A breath of fresh air amidst a running culture that valorizes running hard and individual success over all else. Will read again!

[Jack Garton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sports books are usually bad, because sports are in general narratively dull. Yeah they have suspense sometimes, and a clear win/lose outcome, but these things feel kinda cheap compared to the messiness of life, where suspense is much less common than a sense of ongoingness and I have yet to determine a single instance in real life where there is a clear unqualified winner or loser of anything.

This is a running handbook. A queer running handbook. A handbook that queers running and handbooks, subverting the structure and coming up with new possible combinations and outcomes. Running of all sports is ripe for this, especially long distance running. Despite all attempts to make it fit regular sports narratives, people who run are very aware that it is just a practise that is never-ending and they don’t do it to stand on a podium but to explore possibilities within themselves that repetition might reveal. Within running there is a world beyond the win/lose binary; we might say that running queers sport?

Lindsey Freeman gets into it, in a very readable, fun, elegant and smart way. Running can be hapticality/touch, a weird messy friendship, a way to make/design loops in time, failure, more failure, softness, remembering.

If you liked Haruki Murakami’s running book you’ll like this. We need more works like these that open up what sports really are to 99 percent of people who don’t do them to win.

Ps - this book contains a very satisfying takedown of Malcom Gladwell. Worth it just for that.

[Mikaela Wapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, tender, affirming reflections on the practice of running and repetition and habit. The point of this book is not to talk about improving times or personal bests; this is a book about the quiet glory of sticking with something and the impact on one’s self and one’s body and one’s life from steady practice. About the stories the body and spirit accumulate over a lifetime relationship with the sport. The first running book I’ve read that feels just entirely on the dot for me. Philosophical, literary, deep, queer. One of my favorite books of the year. Read it!

[Melissa Gopp-Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Running" is one of four books in Duke University Press's Practices series, a collection designed to show how ordinary activities help us understand ourselves and the world around us. This one, by sociology professor Lindsey A. Freeman, reads like a love letter to running and writing. Being a serious writer and recreational runner myself, I found so many parallels between the two practices in these pages. What makes this book stand out from others on running is that it was created with the queer, feminist reader in mind. No matter a readers’ identity, Freeman’s ability to use her own running practice as a lens for viewing gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and body acceptance is bound to give new perspective on these dimensions of life that affect us all, whether we realize it yet or not.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i so do not want to be dramatic but honestly this book has and will continue to change my life. i felt seen in ways i’ve never felt seen and it healed my high school self that was hurt, angry, and violated by this sport. it made me understand why that was and the beauty of the practice and of the reputation and the inevitability of injury in my life today. freeman talks about running theory, queer theory, gender theory, and social theory, and their undeniable and relatable love for this sport so eloquently and beautifully and you can’t help but feel compelled by their writing. i like have so many things to say about how amazing this book is but you’ll just have to take my word for it, or listen to me never shut up about it for the rest of my life. this was the best book ever gifted.

[Yuxin · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very tender reflection on the practices of running, and how the routine of practice impacts one’s body and soul. happen to be reading this while taking a pause (again) on my own practice due to injury, still felt very inspired and i’m sure i’ll keep running.

[Sam Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I liked! Made me think a lot about some of my own practices (athletic and non)

[Shai Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

had never read anything like this - lindsey freeman soo beautifully and easily adds a queer perspective to a running practice. i think anyone who runs would enjoy

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

“To be running breathlessly, but not yet arrived, is itself delightful, a suspended moment of hope.” <33 I have to admit I was skeptical of Noah handing me a “queer feminist running handbook” but this was honestly such a delight and put so many of my own feelings about running (and queerness and writing and desire and even love) into words in such a lovely way.

[Christine lawless · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was supposed to be a running handbook, but it was more like a memoir and things the author read and watched about running.

[gigi · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book, made me think a lot about my relationship with running.

[Kevin McDonnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% my favorite work of non-fiction yet!!

[Carrie Everett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reveled in the various anthropological lenses Freeman took with this handbook, as they refer to it. I now think of running as “indulgence in the pleasure and weirdness of having a body”

[Storm Lover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, honestly it’s more of a 3.5 for me, but I’m putting 4 because as a queer runner and writer it had the exact perspective I cherish and hope to see more of in the future.

The writing is good, great even! Lots of beautiful and tender descriptions of running, the sport I love. And from a perspective I think a lot of us queer folk have needed to hear! I’m a running coach, and actually marked this book up to give to one of my runners who I think this will really resonate with.

My issues - to me, this was not a handbook the way the author insisted throughout that it was. This is more about her own personal experiences and things she watched or read about running. It was really more memoir than handbook. I wished it had more runner sciencey things like paces and diagrams on form. Descriptions about what a perfect route looks like. More facts. Especially stats and more history to go along with some of the stories the author tells about other queer runners. I might have even liked to hear what the author prefers to wear in different climates/temperatures.
Overall it felt more meandering than cohesive. So although lovely writing, I don’t think it did what the author intended it to do.

[Zach Laengert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much! Was fortunate enough to meet Lindsey at Queer Run Club in Toronto and hear them read a few sections, and they really are an incredible writer.

So many wonderful insights and emotions are infused into this relatively short text. A few friends and I watched Personal Best on Linsey's recommendation and the next morning practiced a couple hill strides, which she mentions early on.

Definitely a book I'll return to, in my journey as a writer, runner and human being.

[miao · Rating 5 out of 5]

running in its mundanity and possibilities, its agony and ecstasy. routined training as devotion & recovering from injury as queering temporality… lindsey a. freeman made me tear up so many times throughout this book. also there’s arguably no better time to have finished Running than right before a big race

[Amy Chavez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really lacked coherence. I also was not impressed with the way the author dissed a lot of other running books, even best-sellers, despite knowing many of her readers would have read (and enjoyed) those books. Seems very unprofessional to me. If you want to diss other writers, there are plenty of places where it is appropriate to do so; your own book is not one of them.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

“While bodies and bodies of work are wonderful things, often how we will appear to the world and how worlds come to meet us, this handbook is ultimately about the beauty of practice, the often unseen and overlooked actions of trying to do something well because you live it, and because by doing so you can touch and be touched by others who love it too.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🏃🏻‍♂️

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, concise book about running, and the general experience of practice. Freeman's personal stories and tips made this a lot more accessible and relatable for me, someone who has failed to ever maintain a consistent running habit. I might try at it again. Maybe it will stick this time.

[ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

“[R]unning is full of joy, desire, and indulgence in the pleasure and weirdness of having a body…running is touching too.”

a running handbook that is both approachable and (my take) spiritual?? this book has helped me begin to run as an exercise in getting to know myself—my body and my mind.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savored this book! I found many of the sections to be super moving and would often put it down after reading just a couple pages. I'd recommend this to runners, writers, academics, and anyone who feels like their endurance gets tested.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to read a book about running by a queer woman, but while this had some interesting elements, it didn't really click with me the way I hoped. Freeman's experiences and feelings about running are vastly different than my own, and it was just too short, honestly.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the beginning more than later parts

[Annie]

hapticality, the beautiful queerness of finding out what is particularly destined for you, the value of practice

[Adelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this!!! felt like this is a necessary handbook and voice that's hard to seek out in the running dialogue atm

[Christine Gentile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like 4.5, soooo freaking good

[Maud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful!!!!! Yes!!! Running!!!

[Ann Garth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.something, rounded down

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The running book I didn't know I needed!