The 27th Mile - Dimity McDowell

Written By Mona Angéline

As a coach and a long-time runner, I was intrigued by Dimity McDowell’s “The 27th Mile.” Would it be the definitive guide for what comes next? We spend decades working on running more, running better—but we almost never talk about the retirement when it's forced on us by our bodies.

McDowell hits on something very real here: the non-physical consequences of losing our sport. When our social life and mental health are tethered to the Sunday long run, losing them isn't just a physical setback; it’s an identity crisis. The book validates a unique grief and pushes us to stop trying to "fix" and start accepting a new baseline.

While the book is a bit repetitive, I enjoyed how McDowell interweaves personal experience with stories from other retired runners. But the catalog of physical breakdowns, followed by replacement sports and hobbies that barely scratched the itch, scared me off more than it helped me.

I think this book is for you if you're already on your way out of running. It's a soothing read showing you that you're not alone, and that mourning your training log is a normal process that only we runners truly understand.

In gratitude to Grand Central Publishing for the Advance Review Copy.

Mona Angéline

Mona Angéline is an unapologetically vulnerable writer, reader, book reviewer, artist, athlete, and scientist. She honors the creatively unconventional, the authentically "other". She shares her emotions because the world tends to hide theirs. She is a new writer, but her work was recently accepted in Flash Fiction Magazine, Grand Dame Literary, tiny wren lit, Down in the Dirt Magazine, The Viridian Door, The Machine, Whisky Blot Magazine, and The Academy of Mind and Heart. She loves to review books and has written them for the /tƐmz/ Review, the Ampersand Review, and the Beakful Litblog. Sooner or later she will have to condense this list… Mona is also a regular guest editor for scientific journals although she doesn't use a pen name when her engineering PhD degree is involved. She lives bicoastally in Santa Cruz, California, and in New York and savors life despite, or maybe because of, her significant struggles with chronic illness and mild disability. Learn about her musings at creativerunnings.com. Follow her on Instagram under @creativerunnings and on Twitter at @creativerunning.

https://creativerunnings.com
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This Is Not About Running - Mary Cain