Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World

Jesse became Fleshman’s boyfriend when they were both at Stanford in the track program. They broke up and got back together numerous times throughout college, both preferring to center their athletic and academic pursuits rather than their romantic relationship. Later, though, Fleshman felt lonely when she injured herself. She saw other athletes maintaining sexual or romantic relationships and realized that she missed Jesse. They got back together and eventually got married, settling in Jesse’s hometown of Bend, Oregon. They founded the business Picky Bars and had two children together.

Jesse’s presence in Fleshman’s life, particularly around her unsuccessful 2008 Olympic Trials race, illustrates the importance of human relationships in weathering life’s inevitable ups and downs. Jesse supported Fleshman in her intensive training, hosted their families so that Fleshman could focus on her race, and then lovingly comforted her when she didn’t make the team and needed to get surgery. His consistency and support are characterized as essential to Fleshman’s well-being and professional success.

Frank is Lauren Fleshman’s father. Fleshman was initially exposed to sexism in life and in sports through Frank, who made degrading comments about female athletes’ sexual appeal as they watched the Olympics and joked that Fleshman looked “like a dyke” in a running photo (40). Frank complimented Fleshman by saying that she had “balls the size of Texas,” conveying the subliminal messaging that bravery and athletic ability are inherently male traits (14). Although Frank enthusiastically told his daughters that they could do anything, he was cruel to his wife, Joyce, and was clearly treated as the head of the family. The contrast between his words and his superior sense of self foreshadowed Fleshman’s experience in the sporting world; equal opportunity is given ample lip service, but the running world is built on male physiological norms, and sexism is rife, making it an inherently unsafe space for women.

Frank’s alcoholism had a devastating impact on the Fleshman family. As an adult, Fleshman unpacks her relationship with running, which was driven in part by a desire to connect with and impress her father. Frank’s death from cancer devastated Fleshman.

Lananna was Fleshman’s coach throughout her years at Stanford. Although Fleshman had a positive relationship with Lananna, many aspects of his coaching decisions reveal the inequity and sexism present in the sport. Lananna coached both the men’s and women’s track teams, but Fleshman quickly noticed as a freshman that his attention was dominated by the faster and more successful men’s team, exemplifying the American sporting culture of lip service to equal opportunity, which is not delivered on.

Furthermore, Lananna lectured the women’s team on their “integrity problem,” contrasting them with the consistency of the men’s team (73). Fleshman reflects that female athletes cannot be expected to experience the same linear progression as male athletes, given hormonal and weight changes that accompany their development. This inconsistency is compounded when female athletes are urged—explicitly or subliminally—to curb their caloric intake, leaving their bodies starved of nutrition. Fleshman criticizes the norm of blaming women for inconsistent results, as exemplified by Lananna’s lecture, rather than seeking to understand the physiological and systemic reasons behind the inconsistencies.

Lananna also encouraged Fleshman to cross-train through her injury. Although Lananna followed accepted wisdom at the time with this recommendation, it set back Fleshman’s recovery, whose body, hampered by RED-S from systemic overtraining and undernutrition, needed rest. Later, as a coach, Fleshman centers rest and recovery in her female training programs.