Book Review: Tales from Another Mother Runner

Five years ago, before the start of my second half marathon, I was browsing the vendors and came across two tall women selling their book “Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving–and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity” (by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea). I was intrigued, found their website, podcast, and Facebook page, and started following them in any way I could. The “Mother Runner Tribe,” as they call it, is a great resource and support for women runners, and the training plans found in “Train like a Mother” have helped me get ready for many races.

The latest book is called Tales from Another Mother Runner: Triumphs, Trials, Tips, and Tricks from the Road and it is a compilation of running stories, advice and anecdotes collected from readers. I brought the book on a trip that included many plane and train rides, and the shorter chapters and self-contained essays were easy to read, entertaining and educational. Each chapter of the book has a theme (such as ownership, perspective, support, etc) to which the essays relate.

No matter where you are in your running journey, you will find stories you can relate to. Maybe it’s the time you started calling yourself a runner (Ownership: “Taking the title and running with it”), or the day that you really didn’t want to put on your running shoes and you went out anyway (Persistence: “If you can’t run, you can’t win”), or the times that you had a question that you just weren’t sure is polite to ask anybody (“TMI, the extended edition”).

Over the past years, I have met the two authors at several expos, book readings, and races. I look forward to the podcast every week (I can especially relate to Sarah’s stories of running through the streets of Portland), and I’m happy to be part of this support tribe.

Tales from Another Mother Runner: Triumphs, Trials, Tips, and Tricks from the Road is available at major booksellers and on Amazon Kindle for $5.99.