My thoughts: Fast Girl A life spent running from madness

Let me preface this by saying although this book was on my reading list, it was a “blind pick.”  I did not know anything about Suzy Favor Hamilton prior to doing a bit of research (A google search) on her after getting half way through the book. I picked up the audiobook after searching for books on running.  I’d already read the first two that populated my search and the next one in line, was this one.

I must say although it wasn’t at all what I was expecting, I really did enjoy listening to it.  I enjoyed hearing Suzy’s story which brought me through the ups and downs as she experienced them. I found myself yelling at her through my radio and at times, because I couldn’t understand why she would risk her life and reputation. It felt like I was listening to a fictional novel not the story of someone’s life.

Had I known what I was getting myself into when I started listening to this book, I would not have listened with my children in the car with me. When the book went into something I didn’t want to explain to my kids, I’d simply switched books, normally Ghost in the wires, Kevin Mitnick’s story, then put Suzy’s book back on when they were not in the car.  My son, who had really started to enjoy Fast Girl asked me after Kevin dropped a couple of F-bombs, “both books have bad words, why can I not listen to Suzy’ book?”  I had to explain to him (11-year-old) the difference between adult language and adult content.  I had to explain to him what an escort was when the book spoke about calling a service for the couple’s first night in Los Vegas.  But When the book went started telling about  Suzy’s insatiable sexual desires and her masturbating several times… my fingers could not hit the stop button faster enough.  But that has nothing to do with the book.  I wasn’t ready to give that explanation to my children.

I could relate, on some level to Suzy’s story.  Which for me, made this book hard to put down.   I wanted to see her get through her struggles.  Although, I had to run for my job, I started to enjoy running after a hard time in my life. I’ve been running ever since.