Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory [Hardcover]

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Deena Kastor was a star youth runner with tremendous promise, yet her career almost ended after college, when her competitive method—run as hard as possible, for fear of losing—fostered a frustration and negativity and brought her to the brink of burnout. On the verge of quitting, she took a chance and moved to the high altitudes of Alamosa, Colorado, where legendary coach Joe Vigil had started the first professional distance-running team. There she encountered the idea that would transform her running career: the notion that changing her thinking—shaping her mind to be more encouraging, kind, and resilient—could make her faster than she’d ever imagined possible. Building a mind so strong would take years of effort and discipline, but it would propel Kastor to the pinnacle of running—to American records in every distance from the 5K to the marathon—and to the accomplishment of earning America’s first Olympic medal in the marathon in twenty years.

Let Your Mind Runis a fascinating intimate look inside the mind of an elite athlete, a remarkable story of achievement, and an insightful primer on how the small steps of cultivating positivity can give anyone a competitive edge.NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2018 BYLIBRARY JOURNAL

“A candid account about the self-doubt that enters the mind of an elite athlete and how positive thinking made [Kastor] a champion both on and off the course.”
—ATHLETES QUARTERLY

“Long-distance runner Deena Kastor shows the secret to her success – and as an Olympic medalist and the American female record holder in the marathon, she’s had more than a few – relies less on any inborn talents, but on ‘the power of thought, attitude and perspective.’ Through race day and training anecdotes, she reveals the mental habits anyone can use to unleash theirlӏ