Lately, I’ve been working on an analysis of the demographic shifts among marathon finishers – why the sport has been historically male dominated and how it has been shifting towards gender parity.
And so when I saw something about Better Faster Farther by Maggie Mertens, it piqued my interest.
I’m familiar with some of the history of women’s running and marathoning in particular – mostly through Pam Cooper's excellent book, The American Marathon. But I’d been meaning to do some more reading to add a little more historical context to my analysis, and then along comes this book by Maggie Mertens.
I picked up a copy, and I was done with it in a week. It was easy reading, and I definitely learned some things. If you have any interest in running – and especially in how the role of women in sports has changed in the last century – you should definitely give it a read.
Here’s a quick overview of what’s in the book, why you should read it, and a couple of reflections that it prompted.
An Overview of Better Faster Farther
I’m most familiar with this story through the lens of the history of the modern marathon. So I expected the book to begin in the 1960’s or 1970’s – as marathoning was taking off and as women were excluded.
But Mertens starts much further back than that. In fact, she starts almost 100 years ago – with the 1928 Olympics. That year, after much debate, women’s athletics included longer events like the 800m. But afterwards, the women’s events were limited to the 100m. This first chapter sets the foundation for the rest of the book by highlighting the ways in which the male dominated sports world viewed women as lesser and incapable.
From there, the book unfolds chronologically as woman after woman challenges the status quo. The next chapter follows some black athletes in the 1930’s and 1940’s who faced discrimination because of their race. After that, there’s a chapter about a woman breaking new ground in the mile – at the same time as Roger Bannister and the Perfect Mile.
The fourth chapter finally gets to the marathon. This is the story I’m familiar with. But it’s only the halfway point.
The fifth chapter focuses on the history of overtraining and RED-S. It raises the question of whether it’s problematic to treat women like men – and to train them in exactly the same way. Or whether female athletes are at greater risk of disordered eating and the resulting medical complications.
The sixth chapter explores the question of what makes a woman, a woman. It explores some of the science between sex and gender. It’s particularly timely, given the recent focus on trans athletes.
And the final chapter explores the question of whether men always perform better than women. Specifically, it gets into the success some women find in ultra marathons.
The book offers a long view of the exclusion and discrimination of women in running – from the early Olympics through current events.
Why You Should Read Better Faster Farther
Perhaps the best reason you should read this book is because it is interesting.
Maggie Mertens is a journalist and not a scholar. She’s not researching the history of women’s running and writing a literature review. She’s writing something more akin to a magazine feature.
Each chapter revolves around a specific story of a specific person, and through that person she introduces the relevant history and/or science. At times, that history and science seems like a lengthy detour from the main point – which is learning about the stories of the individuals. It makes the book extremely readable and approachable, and you won’t want to put it down.
It’s also very informative, and you’re sure to learn something. I know I did.
I’m very familiar with the current history of women’s marathoning, and I’ve read up some of the older history. But there were episodes in this book that I had no idea about. Specifically, the first three chapters were all completely new to me.
In the final four chapters, I was at least familiar with most of the major events that Mertens describes. But she dives into these topics with enough detail that you’re still bound to walk away with a better understanding of the history.
Finally it’s very timely.
Chapter 6, about what it means to be a “real” woman is super timely. I read this weeks after the Olympics, and the world had just gotten finished trying to understand Imane Khalif. One minute she was being demonized for participating in women’s boxing – and the next minute, (almost) everyone realized that she was indeed a woman. And that the question wasn’t so black and white.
The last chapter, too, is particularly relevant. Last month, Tara Dower set a new fastest known time for the Appalachian Trail. Like the story Mertens shares in the book, this calls into question whether the traditional “hierarchy” of who’s faster applies to ultra-running and to multi-day treks.
Some Reflections On Better Faster Farther
Overall, I think the book is interesting and informative, and I think anyone with an interest in running should read it.
But still, there were a few things that annoyed me. And I wanted to take some time to reflect on those things and think about them a bit.
There’s an underlying tension between the idea that women are equal to men – and should be treated the same – and that women are unique – and should be treated differently. She is openly critical of the old views men held about women, like the idea that exercise would threaten their health and especially their fertility. And, well, she (and we) should be. But later, she’ll criticize the running world for not paying particular attention to women’s health and the way that they are at unique risk of disordered eating and metabolic issues.
The chapter about the mile is strange in that Mertens both plays down Leather’s accomplishment of being the first woman to run a mile under 5:00 – and complains that Leather wasn’t sufficiently remembered in the history of athletics for that accomplishment.
Early on, she points out that there was no sustained effort by multiple women to break the 5:00 barrier – as there had been with Roger Bannister and his compatriots to break the 4:00 mile. But then she claims that Leather lowered the women’s world record by another 15 seconds – “a feat that had taken the world’s best men forty-one years.” But since then, Diane Leather’s own record has been beaten by almost 40 seconds – when Faith Kipyegon ran 4:07 in 2023. Yes, she was a trailblazer. But no, her record was not on the same level as Bannister’s.
A final issue that I had is that Mertens sometimes calls into question pretty solid science and common sense.
In the chapter about RED-S, she starts off by questioning whether weight has an impact on performance – which is just absurd. There’s a reason the best marathon runners in the world are all very thin. It really does make a difference. The problem isn’t that coaches and athletes focus on weight – it’s that they take things to the extreme. The challenge is to both stay slim and adequately fuel the body.
And in the last chapter, she seems to question whether men are (as a whole) faster than women in traditional running events. If you compare apples to apples – elites to elites – there’s no world in which Sha’Charri Richardson is faster than Usain Bolt or Sifan Hassan is faster than Eliud Kipchoge.
To me, even trying to make that argument does them a disservice. They are amazing athletes in their own right – and they don’t need to be faster than men to be considered the best. They compete in a different division, and they dominate.
And I think this is ultimately how the tension should resolve. The goal shouldn’t be for women to be accepted into a men’s running world. It should be for the women’s running world to be accepted on equal footing as men’s – similar but distinct.
The Bottom Line
This book is an enjoyable and informative read. Maggie Merten’s background is in journalism, not academia, and it shows.
She tells the broader story through individual vignettes, and she fills in the historical details and context in between. The result is a book that you won’t want to put down.
It’s also thought provoking – and reaction provoking. Throughout the book, I found myself reacting at times to things she’d written, and then as if she anticipated those reactions should would later address some of what I was thinking. You’ll walk away from this knowing more about the history and with plenty of things to think about.
I’d highly recommend the book. Pick up a copy of Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women and give it a go. It’s available as an audio book, too, which is a perfect option if you like to listen to things while you run.