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This article is part of our ongoing series at Women’s Running by Dimity McDowell, offering support to runners who can no longer run.
In 2018, during a training session for a Rim-to-Rim hike across the Grand Canyon—my first event in decades that didn’t involve running—I had about 15 minutes of climbing left in a four-hour effort. I was dusty and hangry and not so kind to myself. My mantra on repeat: I’m so slow. I look slow. I feel slow. Towering pines shaded the trail as a runner, who looked like she belonged on a 50K podium, passed me from behind. Immediately, I started comparing her speed to mine, her ability to mine, her body to mine. She cut that off quickly. “You’re so strong,” she said, as she floated up the trail. “Keep going.”
I love the running family, the community of women who all seem to support each other, knowing that we’re more…
