If you’re passionate about running, reading, and reading about running, 2023 should be a good year for you. A handful of books are slated for publication that promise to educate, entertain, and inspire, whether you’re a front-of-pack runner like new memoirist Des Linden or a passionate participant advocate such as Slow AF Run Club founder Martinus Evans.
Here are seven 2023 books:
Born to Run 2: The Ultimate Training Guide
About a decade after he wrote the smash hit Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, Christopher McDougall is back with an illustrated training guide called Born to Run 2. A collaboration between McDougall and Born to Run coach Eric Orton (also the author of The Cool Impossible), Born to Run 2 is “a holistic program for runners of every stripe” that focuses on food, fitness, form, footwear, focus, fun, and family. Inside you’ll find a 90-day training schedule, runner-friendly recipes, corrective drills, shoe recommendations, and more. (December 2022)
Higher Expectations: Ten Steps to Becoming a Champion
Higher Expectations: Ten Steps to Becoming a Champion
When his autobiography was published in 2013, British runner Mo Farah was fresh off the London Olympics, where he’d won gold in both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races. Much has changed for Farah since then, including another successful Olympic double in 2016, a move to the marathon in 2017, and a change in coaches and training groups that same year. In Higher Expectations: Ten Steps to Becoming a Champion, Farah reflects on his historic career (thus far) and shares “the secrets of his winning mindset.” (January 1)
The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team
The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team
Twice an Olympian and global medalist, Kara Goucher gained a platform with her speed and stamina. Now she’s using her voice to tell her version of the Nike Oregon Project doping scandal and to advocate for females in the running space and beyond. Her memoir, which comes out in March and is the culmination of three years of work, is called The Longest Race. “Yes, my book is about the running industry,” Goucher says, “but it can really be applied to women everywhere. I want them to know that they are not alone… that they can get through the most difficult of times and that they have power in their voices.” (March 14)
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. Through Running (Practices), sociology professor and former NCAA Division I runner Lindsey A. Freeman wants to bring these topics to the forefront and spawn connections along the way. “Running is an attempt to write the queer and feminist book about running that I always wanted but couldn’t find,” Freeman says. Her 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.” (March 14 )
If you still get goosebumps remembering Des Linden breaking the tape at the 2018 Boston Marathon—the first American woman in 33 years to do so—get pumped for Linden’s forthcoming memoir, Choosing to Run, a collaboration with prolific sportswriter Bonnie D. Ford. In what she calls “an underdog story, an outsider story, and a story about the constant wrestle of fitting running into my life in a way that’s sustainable and fulfilling,” she offers a behind-the-scenes look at the training and mindset that precipitated two Olympic berths and that epic Boston victory. Not just for elites, Linden says, “I think anybody who has a passion for lacing up their running shoes and getting out the door will see a bit of themselves in my journey and hopefully be inspired to keep showing up.” (April 4 publication)
We Share the Sun: The Incredible Journey of Kenya's Legendary Running Coach Patrick Sang and the Fastest Runners on Earth
We Share the Sun: The Incredible Journey of Kenya's Legendary Running Coach Patrick Sang and the Fastest Runners on Earth
Kenyan coach Patrick Sang guided Eluid Kipchoge to the first-ever sub-2-hour marathon and in We Share the Sun, Sarah Gearhart’s biography, runners will get a window into this living legend’s coaching philosophy and his relationship with his athletes. “I wanted to write a book that gives Coach Patrick Sang his due,” Gearhart says of the project that took her three years to complete. Through it, she also offers her perspective on the world of Kenyan distance running, and all of “the risk, sacrifice, and determination it takes to establish oneself as a championship-caliber athlete in the world’s distance running hotbed.” (April 4 publication)
Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run
Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run
Just because running is available to all doesn’t mean that it’s welcome to all: Martinus Evans knows this as well as anyone. When he began his running journey 10 years ago in a 300-something-pound body, he says, “All I wanted was someone to talk to who had experienced exactly what I was going through.” Slow AF Run Club is intended to fill that void. A coach with an exercise science degree who has now run eight marathons, Evans calls it “a blueprint for those who may not fit the image of a ‘traditional’ runner—that is, someone who is larger in size, less athletic, out of shape, or dealing with any kind of health issue that slows them down—to feel empowered to lace up their shoes and embrace the body they have right now.” (June 6)
Classic Books for Runners
Runners love to read! It stokes enthusiasm and turns an individual sport into one in which everyone is sharing their experience. Some books focus on training so you can become a better runner. Others explore the epic journeys from some of the top names in the sport, like Scott Jurek on his amazing Appalachian Trail journey or Meb Keflezighi detailing all of the big marathons in his illustrious career.
This list includes some Runner's World favorites from the past few years, and together they have recipes, stories, training plans, and encouragement.
Run Like a Pro (Even If You're Slow): Elite Tools and Tips for Runners at Every Level
Run Like a Pro (Even If You're Slow): Elite Tools and Tips for Runners at Every Level
Even if you don’t get paid to run, you can still approach your craft like a professional. Learn how through Run Like a Pro (Even If You’re Slow) by Ben Rosario, coach of Northern Arizona Elite and Olympic marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk, and Matt Fitzgerald, prolific fitness writer and 2:39 marathoner.
The Runner’s Kitchen: 100 Stamina-Building, Energy-Boosting Recipes, with Meal Plans to Maximize Your
The Runner’s Kitchen: 100 Stamina-Building, Energy-Boosting Recipes, with Meal Plans to Maximize Your
By all indicators, if steeplechase world champion Emma Coburn isn’t on the track or in the gym, there’s a good chance she’s in the kitchen, whipping up elaborate meals for her Team Boss teammates and impressive cakes for friends and family. Her goal for The Runner’s Kitchen, featuring 100 of her favorite recipes, is “to open people’s eyes to the joy, and health, of having a diet with a variety of carbs, protein, fats, fruits and veggies, and sugar.” Coburn also hopes to debunk the myth, especially prevalent among young female runners, that a restrictive diet is the way to go.
The Comeback Quotient: A Get-Real Guide to Building Mental Fitness in Sport and Life
The Comeback Quotient: A Get-Real Guide to Building Mental Fitness in Sport and Life
In classic Matt Fitzgerald style, The Comeback Quotient combines real-world experiences with cutting-edge science, this time to demystify the beloved sports comeback story. “I wrote the book for athletes of all stripes who want to become mentally fitter,” Fitzgerald says. Using ultrarunners, triathletes, and road runners like cover model (and Olympic Marathon qualifier) Molly Siedel as inspiration, he breaks down the three-step process that great athletes use to bounce back from adversity.
The Genius of Athletes: What World-Class Competitors Know That Can Change Your Life
The Genius of Athletes: What World-Class Competitors Know That Can Change Your Life
Psychology of endurance expert Noel Brick, Ph.D., and Runner’s World contributing writer Scott Douglas wrote The Genius of Athletes “to help everyday athletes learn and hone the thinking skills that top athletes use” for application within and outside the confines of sport. Readers will learn the five key types of cognitive tools for navigating challenges. They’ll also glean inspiration from individuals who have translated athletic success to other realms, such as Olympic Nordic ski champion Kikkan Randall overcoming breast cancer.
Running on Veggies: Plant-Powered Recipes for Fueling and Feeling Your Best
Lottie Bildirici, the nutrition coach, recipe developer, and athlete behind the Running on Veggies blog, has a cookbook, also called Running on Veggies, which draws on her experience helping athletes from around the world fuel properly. It features more than 100 new recipes, along with meal plans, grocery lists, and pantry staples.
Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery
Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery
FiveThirtyEight science writer Christie Aschwanden offers much-needed clarity on the recovery in Good to Go. From Gatorade to cryotherapy, Tom Brady’s infrared pajamas to Simone Biles’s pneumatic compression boots, Aschwanden investigates the latest trends, often playing the guinea pig herself. Good to Go ultimately aims to resolve which recovery products and practices are worth our time and money.
Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport That Wasn't Built for Us
Perhaps best recognized as the activist behind Harlem Run, Run 4 All Women, and Running Industry Diversity Coalition, Alison Mariella Désir is also the author of Running While Black. She examines her experiences as an endurance athlete from a historical and Black perspective, seeking to understand the gulf between running’s reputation as an egalitarian sport and its reality as an unwelcome environment for many non-white individuals.
How She Did It: Stories, Advice, and Secrets to Success from Fifty Legendary Distance Runners
How She Did It: Stories, Advice, and Secrets to Success from Fifty Legendary Distance Runners
Molly Huddle, a two-time Olympian and one of the most decorated distance runners in U.S. history, and Sara Slattery, a former pro and current Grand Canyon University coach wrote How She Did It as their gift to future generations of female distance runners. Drawing on their own stories as well as those of 50 other notable women runners, the aim of the book, Huddle says, is “to connect with young athletes and their coaches and parents to provide a guide for a healthy and productive approach to distance running.”
Mighty Moe: The True Story of a Thirteen-Year-Old Women’s Running Revolutionary
Mighty Moe: The True Story of a Thirteen-Year-Old Women’s Running Revolutionary
On May 6, 1967, Maureen Wilton, a 13-year-old girl from a suburb of Toronto, Canada, attempted to break the women’s marathon world record of 3:19 at a small race a few miles from her home. She lined up on a dusty road to complete five laps of a roughly 5-mile course with 28 men and one other woman—Kathrine Switzer, who joined the race two weeks after her own iconic Boston Marathon finish. (Read an excerpt here.)
Many runners believe that they can’t reach their potential without a combination of tunnel vision and a win-at-all-costs attitude. Olympic athlete and coach Mark Coogan and Runner’s World contributing writer Scott Douglas turn that assumption on its head in Personal Best Running. Coogan says it’s informed by his 30 years of experience in the sport and his belief that “you can run well and be successful, do great training, and still be happy and take care of yourself.”
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Alex Hutchinson, the former Runner’s World “Sweat Science” columnist takes a close look at how we can train our brains to push past physical limitations.
Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory
Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory
Olympic medalist and American record holder in the marathon, Deena Kastor, credits her success to a shift toward optimistic thinking. In her book, she shares how the power of positive psychology worked for her.
Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World
Former U.S. track champion Lauren Fleshman builds on her 2019 New York Times opinion piece in “I Changed My Body for My Sport. No Girl Should.” Her book is her way to help female athletes understand the unique roadblocks they face—from eating disorders to underpayment—so that they can reimagine the female athletic experience.
Training Essentials for Ultrarunning- Second Edition
Jason Koop’s updated Training Essentials for Ultrarunning is a rich resource. Koop offers ultrarunners a reference manual that he believes will be relevant for decades to come, at 522 pages and with more than 400 scientific references.
A novel, Once a Runner ’s protagonist is a senior in college on the brink of greatness in the mile. Again to Carthage, a sequel, details marathon racing after a brief retirement.
26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career
26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career
The legendary Meb Keflezighi brought American distance running back to its former glory with wins in the Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon, and other races. Keflezighi ran 26 marathons as a pro and, in this memoir, he shares his lessons learned and experiences from every single one of his amazing races. Check out the 10 things you can learn from this book.
Can't Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race against Time
Can't Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race against Time
Age is just a number, and nobody embodied that more than Ida Keeling. While she is no longer with us, until she was over 100, Keeling often won as the lone participant in her age group. In her memoir, she shares tales from her thrilling running career like when she broke the world record in the 100-meter dash and celebrated with pushups, to her struggles: growing up poor in Harlem, working in factories during the Great Depression to raise four kids as a single mother, and losing two adult sons to unsolved cases of drug-related violence.
Running Is My Therapy: Relieve Stress and Anxiety, Fight Depression, Ditch Bad Habits, and Live Happier
Running Is My Therapy: Relieve Stress and Anxiety, Fight Depression, Ditch Bad Habits, and Live Happier
Running puts everyone in a better mood. But for some of us, our miles are key to managing depression and anxiety. Runner’s World contributing editor Scott Douglas explores the idea behind the growing body of scientific research that shows how running really can make us happier.
You may know Mirna Valerio from her blog and Facebook page Fatgirlrunning, where her posts display an indomitable will to conquer goals. Her book displays that same spirit, but with more detail—you’ll learn how a wakeup call in the form of chest pains got Mirna, at 300 pounds, into running. She has not stopped, working her way from 5Ks to ultramarathons to becoming a sponsored athlete with a vital message: Running is for every body.
HarperCollins Christian Pub. Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games
HarperCollins Christian Pub. Running for My Life: One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games
Lopez Lomong chronicles his rise from being a barefoot lost boy of the Sudanese Civil War to a U.S. Olympian. “Lopez Lomong’s story is one of true inspiration,” wrote four-time gold medalist Michael Johnson in his review of the book. “His life is a story of courage, hard work, never giving up, and having hope where there is hopelessness all around. Lopez is a true role model.”
Runner’s World How to Make Yourself Poop: And 999 Other Tips All Runners Should Know
Runner’s World How to Make Yourself Poop: And 999 Other Tips All Runners Should Know
The title sounds cheeky, but we know how important the something like making yourself poop before a race really is. Former Runner’s World editor Meghan Kita curated hundreds of the very best tips when it comes to running, all so you can hit the roads with confidence.
My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon
My Life on the Run: The Wit, Wisdom, and Insights of a Road Racing Icon
One our favorite running icons and Runner’s World’s most recent chief running officer takes you on some of his adventures around the world to races big and small, everywhere from Antarctica and Africa to Chitwan National Park in Nepal where he was chased by an angry rhino.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
The author of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand, tells the incredible story of Louis Zamperini, a talented young track star who competed in the Berlin Olympics whose life took a turn after World War II broke out. Follow Zamperini as he tests his endurance for running and survival in this must-read.
Summits of My Life: Daring Adventures on the World's Greatest Peaks
In addition to competitive racing, Kilian Jornet, challenged himself to get Fastest-Known Times on some of the world’s tallest peaks for both ascents and descents. In Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers, Jornet details these journeys on Matterhorn, Denali, and many more through photos, words, and illustrations that take you deep into his expeditions.
The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance
The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance
Adharanand Finn, author of Running with the Kenyans and The Way of the Runner, takes you deep into another running world in The Rise of the Ultrarunners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance.
Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger From Sports Injuries
Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger From Sports Injuries
If recovery after an injury has ever been confusing to you, you’re not alone. Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries combines personal narratives from athletes, scientific research, and experts in the field to provide dozens of tips and tricks that will help runners in any phase of the recovery process.
What Made Maddy Run : The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen - (Hardcover)
What Made Maddy Run : The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen - (Hardcover)
To everyone who knew her, it seemed like Maddy Holleran had it all. But then the successful runner—in her first year at her Ivy League dream school, The University of Pennsylvania—leapt from the roof of a parking garage and ended her life. That tragic act betrayed a façade of determination and a carefully curated social media presence. Journalist Kate Fagan uses Maddy’s story to illustrate the plight of young people waging lonely battles with mental illness against the pressure of presenting a “perfect” life.
Breakthrough Women's Running: Dream Big and Train Smart
Breakthrough Women's Running: Dream Big and Train Smart
Female runners looking to reach the next level wil want to add Breakthrough Women’s Running to their shelves. Combining the experience of Neely Spence Gracey and Cindy Kuzma, the book features personal stories, interviews, training plans, science-backed advice, and a handful of recipes in a fun and approachable package.
There’s something about the repetition of running that brings out the philosophical side of many people. Using works from philosophy, literature, and his own running experiences, Cregan-Reid looks at the human side of the sport in Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human.
[These 9 Children’s Books About Running Will Get Your Kids to the Starting Line]
Runner's World Train Smart, Run Forever: How to Become a Fit and Healthy Lifelong Runner by Following The Innovative 7-Hour Workout Week
Runner's World Train Smart, Run Forever: How to Become a Fit and Healthy Lifelong Runner by Following The Innovative 7-Hour Workout Week
The authors of the notable Run Less, Run Faster shifted their focus from the die-hard, numbers obsessed runner to the runner who wants to stay healthy through the decades. Train Smart, Run Forever details the 7-hour-workout week, which includes three runs each week and three cross-training sessions, including strength-training, flexibility work, and stretching.
Becky Wade is a three-time Olympic Trials competitor with a 2:30 marathon best. Her book about global running cultures, Run the World, was published in 2016.
