Becoming a Sustainable Runner

Becoming a Sustainable Runner is not just another running guide on developing the physical attributes to run faster or longer. What it will help you achieve is a newfound purpose that merges your passion for running with your concern for your health, your community, and the environment. It weaves together concepts of internal and external sustainability in a way that will help you run, think, and act in a way that is in line with your values.

Divided into three parts, the book begins by giving you the tools to find excitement and joy in your runs and sustain your running for the long term. These include acknowledging stressors, setting new challenges, changing where you run and who you run with, and prioritizing physical and mental rest to minimize the risk of injury, illness, and burnout.

Next, discover ways to enrich your running through personal connections. Learn about the importance of joining or forming a running community that fosters comradery with others who believe in the power of service and in giving back in meaningful and impactful ways.

Then, tap into your passion to sustain our planet. Know what it means to be an eco-conscious traveler, make environmentally friendly choices about where you run and the products you use, and reduce your carbon footprint through the 3R’s: reducing, reusing, and recycling.

Throughout the book you’ll enjoy stories from the authors about their personal challenges and triumphs as runners and stewards of the environment. Quotes and insights from well-known runners who are also climate change and environmental justice advocates underscore the breadth and depth of the issues facing us all.

As a runner, you have the power to change the world for the better. Becoming a Sustainable Runner provides actionable steps to help you do just that.

Audience

Runners and running coaches interested in sustainability, the environment, and climate change.

Part I. Sustain Your Runner’s Mind and Body
Chapter 1. Play the Long Game
Chapter 2. Bolster Your Confidence
Chapter 3. Clear Out the Clutter
Chapter 4. Focus on Sustainable Strength
Chapter 5. Reduce Injury Risk
Chapter 6. Explore Your Surroundings
Chapter 7. Replenish Your Body

Part II. Sustain Your Running Community
Chapter 8. Find Your Place
Chapter 9. Give Back
Chapter 10. Consider Activism

Part III. Sustain Our Planet
Chapter 11. Encourage Sustainable Events
Chapter 12. Be an Eco-Conscious Traveler
Chapter 13. Consume With Care
Chapter 14. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Chapter 15. Eat and Drink Responsibly

Originally from St. Albans, England, Tina Muir was a professional runner who represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a world championship. Now in St. Louis, Missouri, Muir founded her own business for runners, Running for Real, providing camaraderie and opportunity for growth. Her podcast of the same name has amassed over six million downloads and was voted Best Fitness Podcast at the Sports Podcast Awards in 2021. It is a collective of conversations about running, the climate emergency, and social justice. Guests have included Rich Roll, Des Linden, David Epstein, Reshma Saujani, Kara Goucher, and Malcolm Gladwell. Muir also hosts a second podcast with Knox Robinson called Running Realized, noted as “The ‘Invisibilia’ of running” by Women’s Running.

Muir has published articles in The Guardian, Runner’s World, Self, and Women’s Running and released a self-published book in January 2019 that was featured on major running outlets as well as multiple podcasts. In 2021, she began collaborating with the United Nations and has been celebrated as one of the lead climate activists in the running space. Voted as one of the 17 women changing the world of running by Women’s Running in 2017, she has inspired many others to speak out about their own passions.

Zoë Rom is the editor in chief at Trail Runner magazine; managing editor at Women’s Running; and writer, host, and producer of the DNF podcast, which has been called the “This American Life of running podcasts” by Los Angeles Review of Books. In 2022, she joined a collective of athletes and writers (including Kara Goucher and other elite runners and podcast hosts) as part of Relay, which creates written content, podcasts, and videos that are offered through a Patreon subscription.

Rom is an award-winning journalist whose work has been featured in Outside, Backpacker, and Trail Runner magazines as well as on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In 2019, she won the Colorado Broadcasters Association’s award for Outstanding Feature Reporting. Her writing has also appeared in Women’s Running, Discover, REI Co-op Journal, and on Threshold, a Peabody-award-winning environmental podcast.

Rom is an elite trail runner with a master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Colorado–Boulder. She has covered sled dog racing in the Alaskan bush, arctic sea ice exploration in Norway, morel hunting in northern Arkansas, competitive alpaca racing in the Colorado Rockies, and much more. Her running accomplishments include first place at the Crested Butte 100K and Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon as well as two consecutive wins at the War Eagle 50K.

“Tina and Zoë make us think about our strategy and goals in races and life. Better yet, they expect us to channel our energy for the greater good and the environment. I highly recommend Becoming a Sustainable Runner to everyone who exercises!”
—Meb Keflezighi, Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist and Winner of the New York City Marathon and Boston Marathon

“I’ve been waiting a long time for a book that puts running in the broader context of our bodies, our minds, and the world around us. Becoming a Sustainable Runner is that book.”
—Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times Bestselling Author

“I've loved running for a long time now, and I often think about how running nourishes me. What I don't think enough about is how we can use running to make our world better too. Becoming a Sustainable Runner is a practical guide for how we can all do this, in ways that make our running all the more joyful and sustaining.”
—Simran Jeet Singh, Five-Time Marathoner and Author of National Bestseller The Light We Give

"Becoming a Sustainable Runner is a fantastic example of how to improve your life in more of a wholesome way, and running is the muse that can be used to become aware and integrate how we are and want to live the rest of our life. When we are aware, we have more choices. When we are healthy, we make healthier choices, and those choices help the rest of our lives and the planet."
—Darin Olien, Author of New York Times Bestseller Superlife and Cohost of Down to Earth With Zac Efron

“Tina stands out as a vastly experienced and accomplished athlete, but it is her ability to place her craft in the broader context of life that makes her stand apart. In Becoming a Sustainable Runner, she helps explain not just how to run well but also how to live well by running. The difference is important, and it makes for a great read.”
—Tim Brown, Cofounder of Allbirds

“In Becoming a Sustainable Runner, Tina and Zoë have written a beautiful, thought-provoking, and empowering book. It gives us the tools to become more sustainable runners and drive positive change in our world, as well as the belief that we can all make a difference. Personally, it has helped me reframe my relationship with running and given me more confidence to challenge the status quo and fight for inclusion.”
—Sophie Power, Ultrarunner and Founder of SheRaces

"Becoming a Sustainable Runner is like getting a joyful, motivational hug from friends before a big race. Zoë and Tina grab flashlights, shine them under our beds, and help us realize those things we all share can be friends instead of monsters. It's always so scary to think of big topics like showing up every day, relentlessly, to improve as a runner and community member. This book teaches us that showing up every day can be so damn fun, especially when you have one of those flashlights that Zoë and Tina shine into the dark places. After you read this book, you're going to have to buy extra-strength melatonin because you're going to be so excited to wake up the next day and show the heck up. It's a delightful feeling, inspired by a delightful and important book.”
—David Roche and Megan Roche, MD, PhD, Coaches and Authors of The Happy Runner

"Every runner looking to embody a truly sustainable lifestyle needs to read Becoming a Sustainable Runner. Zoë and Tina explore every aspect of what being a sustainable runner means, from the lenses of mental health and body image, all the way to environmental impacts and sociocultural perspectives. This book exemplifies the interconnectedness of our actions with the outside world and goes to show that lifelong runners will be those who can find sustainability across all areas of life, not in just the sport of running.”
—Grayson Murphy, professional runner for Saucony, 4x US Champion | 2x World Champion

 

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