Girls of greatness

First Ladies of Running by Amby Burfoot

This is what it says in the subtitle--22 inspiring profiles of the rebels, rule breakers, and visionaries who changed the sport forever.  Ms. Burfoot did a great job of balancing personal details with facts and numbers.  It could have been longer and still held my interest, but it didn't need to be. And it was, indeed, inspiring.

In the 1922 Olympics in Amsterdam, the IOC permitted a women's 800 meter race.  It had dire consequences for the sport of running. Ms. Burfoot writes that one runner collapsed on the track--briefly--and a few others looked so tired and harried that the IOC banned the distance.  As the author mentions, some of the men looked equally exhausted but no one even noticed.

Actually her information was a little off.  No one really "collapsed on the track". One woman was trying to lean forward to edge out her teammate at the finish, and she fell forward.  She got up immediately.  And there were eleven finishers--no dropouts.  See this article for a good description of reality vs. sensationalized news reporting, aka, fiction:  http://www.runnersworld.com/running-times-info/eleven-wretched-women

Nit-picking aside, the spirit of the book is excellent and the stories are both uplifting and painful. It's heartbreaking to read about the many times these runners were sidelined with injury.  The science of the sport has advanced greatly since the 50s-70s, when these record-breakers were training, making and breaking. Many of their injuries might have been prevented with better training, more rest, and less oppressive footgear. But of course, not all of them.  These are athletes and athletes sometimes get hurt. They're aggressive, determined, and uncompromising competitors.  They pushed themselves beyond the limits and didn't give up easily--if at all.

In other words, they were women.