I’m in my running/reading era. More so the reading part, because running is hard. Still, I’ve spent a lot of time around the world of long-distance running. My wife is a multi-time All-American track and cross-country star and 2019 Boston Marathon qualifier (and runner.) I even ran a marathon (slowly and painfully) myself. No doubt, I’ve bored you with my running resume, but hopefully it explains my draw to The Longest Race by Kara Goucher.

Nike is synonymous with elite running. Goucher’s memoir/expose shines a bright, but not-so-flattering light on Nike’s flagship running program, The Oregon Project. The Longest Race is part memoir, part whistleblower account. It exposes a culture of emotional and physical abuse, performance-enhancing drugs, and outright misogyny under coach Alberto Salazar.

My The Longest Race by Kara Goucher book review:

The Longest Race by Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon — Me and Kara are mad and we’re not going to stand for it any longer

Just so you know – I may earn an affiliate commission if you click a link from my site and purchase a product. Don’t worry, it won’t cost you anything extra! Hopefully, I’ll rack up enough commission to treat myself to a coffee someday—nothing fancy, just a plain small coffee from a gas station on the edge of town. Thanks for supporting the blog!

The Longest Race by Kara Goucher with Mary Pilon

Full title — The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team

The title/subtitle pretty much tells you what to expect in this book, eh?? Here’s the long version:

The Longest Race by Kara Goucher is part memoir, part exposé. Goucher was an Olympic marathoner and one of America’s most accomplished distance runners. She pulls back the curtain on her years with Nike’s elite training group, the Oregon Project. Celebrated coach Alberto Salazar promised cutting-edge training. What she got was a culture of emotional manipulation, performance-enhancing drugs, and good old-fashioned misogyny. The book follows not just her career on the track but her growing realization that Olympic medals mattered more to the system than actual human beings.

One of the most fascinating (and maddening) parts of Goucher’s story is how sponsors treated elite female athletes. Nike basically said: run fast, win medals, get paid; slow down to have a baby, good luck paying rent. Her paychecks stopped during pregnancy. Meanwhile, the company used photos of Goucher during pregnancy, but photoshopped her pregnant belly out of the image. (Yet left her swollen pregnancy breasts as-is. Convenient, right?)

Goucher’s memoir isn’t just about her running backstory. It’s also about finally calling out Nike’s Oregon Project abuse and advocating for future female athletes.

Check current price on Amazon

Who is Kara Goucher?

Kara Goucher is an American long-distance runner, two-time Olympian (2008/2012), and 2007 World Championships 10,000 m silver medalist. She finished 3rd in the 2008 New York Marathon and again 3rd at the 2009 Boston Marathon. After retiring from competition, Goucher became a vocal advocate for clean sport and has worked as a track analyst for NBC Sports. Goucher co-hosts the popular running podcast Nobody Asked Us with Des & Kara, where she and fellow Olympian Des Linden dive into running culture, elite performance, and life off the track.

(By the way, you can find my review of Des’s running memoir here!)

Follow Kara on Instagram: karagoucher

More running reads here!

Who is Mary Pilon?

Mary Pilon is a journalist, author, and filmmaker known for her investigative storytelling around sports, business, and power. She co-authored The Longest Race (the one we’re talking about now) with Olympian Kara Goucher, helping expose abuse and corruption within elite running. Pilon’s other work includes The Monopolists, The Kevin Show, and the audio series Twisted about Larry Nassar. A former reporter for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, she’s also produced documentaries for HBO and NBC and continues to shine a light on stories that often go untold.

Find Mary Pilon here: Mary Pilon

Now onto the rating! The Longest Race by Kara Goucher Review:

Overall Book Awesomeness Score: 4/5

Fascinating. Goucher’s accounts were eye-opening. I never would’ve guessed Nike (and probably other big brands) treated their star female athletes so conditionally. Get pregnant? Lose your paycheck. I get that they’re paying for performance, but I assumed contracts with world-class athletes would account for the long term. Silly me.

Things I liked:

Behind the scenes of the biggest brand in running.
Raw, emotional details – it took guts to publish this account against the shoe giant!

Things I didn’t like:

Small nitpick: I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Goucher herself. I appreciated hearing the story in her own voice, but the delivery felt a bit flat.