Genre: Memoir
Published: 2017
Purchased from Amazon
Mirna Valerio is not your typical runner. For one thing, she participates in a lot more big events than your regular jogger. For another, she's not stick-thin. One day, realizing her health was as risk, she decided to take up running. What started as a journey to get into shape became a passion, and then a blogging adventure, and then plenty of time in the spotlight inspiring runners across the country. Throughout the book, she shares experiences running at school, participating in ultramarathons, and so much more in the name of believing that every body has the right to be appreciated and that stereotypes should be shattered.
*I give some fair warning: this review may or may not be a teensy bit biased. Because the best part of all? I’ve known Ms. Valerio for four years and she was my Spanish teacher for 3 of those years, so I can assure you that she is just as awesome as she sounds. As a result, I won't give a final rating or get critique-y.*
| One day in the land of Society, some people gathered to decide on a new Norm: that “skinny” was the only acceptable body type. It didn’t matter whether the fat ones were healthy. The ones who decided on this Norm felt that competition was healthy. The rest of Society, being the blind sheep that they were, decided to follow along with this idea, even though they likely would not be able to come up with a reason for why skinny was better than anything else if asked. Enter trail runner and blogger Mirna Valerio, who challenged all of these ideals. Through 26-ish chapters, Valerio recounts her journey to becoming a trail runner. She was told that, unless she didn’t care to see her son grow up, that she needed to adjust her lifestyle now. The rest was for the history books…this book, anyway. Now of course, knowing the author, I knew about a few stories and characters mentioned. I enjoyed reading about classmates, my math teacher, and Valerio’s son Rashid in the pages of the book, and I smiled to myself as I remember how he once got mad at me for not buying him Cheetos in the school vending machine. But even if you don’t know her personally, followers of Valerio’s blog will be familiar with her writing style and some of the people and places mentioned. As a reader of her blog, I appreciated reading about races in greater detail. Because she is a blogger, chapters do jump around from period to period, topic to topic, in blog style. Sometimes she recounts a trail race she completed. Sometimes she tells us about a family member who she honors with her running. And other times, she speaks to us about why fat shaming is so stupid. (It is!) But no matter where you are in this book, each chapter leads back to her fitness journey in some way or another. Also entertaining were the side stories about her life in Brooklyn, at boarding school (how strange was it to see my former school in the pages of a published book, along with characters I recognized??) and elsewhere. I always had to laugh at how in my days at boarding school, she would stand up at dinnertime announcements, inviting everyone and anyone to join her on her 6AM run…and genuinely meant it. But I learned a lot of new things about her running experience that I didn’t learn from school. I especially loved her experiences playing field hockey and how that was essentially the very beginning of it all. I enjoyed hearing about the runs themselves. As someone who enjoyed reading a few hiking memoirs a few years back (A Walk in the Woods; Wild; and the blog of a local teacher hiking the Appalachian Trail), the idea of being in the woods wasn’t all unfamiliar to me, but Valerio introduced me to the world of the sport even further. I know that not all readers appreciated these side bits, but they made the story well-rounded. By showing us another side to her life, Valerio proves that she is not just another runner; someone who has personality and aspires to do good for the rest of the running community and for the society who judges those who “shouldn’t be running.” Need I mention that Valerio also doesn’t care what anyone else thinks? This is evident throughout the book. But once readers come to the end and see her taking part in professional photo shoots, we know that progress is being made, no matter how slowly. I would hope that judgmental body shamers would take a look at what is said here, if they even bother to pick this up, but I learned a couple things as well. Like, the goal of a marathon isn’t necessarily to finish in first. Mirna Valerio was often coming in last or close to last, but who cared because SHE DID IT, GOSH DARNIT. And that’s more than I could probably ever say about running a marathon. Another thing was the trend of trail running, something I’ve barely heard of before she started her blog, Fat Girl Running. I think everyone in society should read that last chapter, which ends on a quasi-final yet non-preachy note about the stupidity of shaming anyone for their body. Acceptance is cool, people. If you’re an athlete, a “bigger” person who feels shamed in society, a nature lover, or if you just like a fun, inspiring read, be sure to pick this up. I would also recommend getting the audio book if that’s your thing, because she has a great “reading voice.” Well worth the time I spent reading it. |
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