Let Your Mind Run

A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory

By: Deena Kastor, Michelle Hamilton

Narrated by: Deena Kastor

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Deena Kastor is one of the greatest bodies in distance running, but this book captures what is so groundbreaking about her mind.”—Alexi Pappas, Olympian, writer, and filmmaker

“Inspiring, fascinating, and insightful. Practical for anyone trying to overcome the biggest impediments to climbing that next hill of growth.”—Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential

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—brought her to the brink of burnout. On the verge of quitting, she took a chance on legendary coach Joe Vigil, who had started the first professional distance-running team in the US. At his Colorado training center, she encountered the notion that 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 Run is 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 possibility can give anyone a competitive edge.

Inspirational and great for anyone

I took away so much from this book and two weeks after finishing it- I find myself interrogating my thoughts and thinking more positively. A great book for runners and non runners. A great book for chronic strivers, people struggling with negativity and/a cluttered mind. I’m grateful to have found this one!

Mixed feelings but wanted to like it

I thought this book would be more about positive thinking and focus during one's runs. Instead (although I knew it was a memoir) it seemed to focus on her being upset every time she didn't win or place. After a while that started to bother me. It's probably because I think running should be for fun, not to be focused on how "bad you did" because you didn't win or qualify for something. Also, she continued to call her pacing "slow" at times when she wasn't doing perfectly. After a while that gets old. I get that she is an elite athlete and has high expectations. However, it does not come across as very positive to be saying that throughout the book. So I think if I did more research and learned this was really more a biography and less about positive thinking and training your mind, it would have been ok. I did like the parts about her coach and his ways of motivating her and the team.

Inspiring story about running and life

As a serious recreational runner I loved this book and found so many inspiring elements in Kastor’s narrative. But this is also an account of how to live a fulfilling life, and I would say that’s the more compelling message. I highly recommend it!

Great source for Motivation and Inspiration

absolutely loved this book. great brain food for runners and coaches to help you with running and life. very good book and worth reading/listening to!

This is a book I will read/listen to again and again

Very inspiring. Not just for running but for life! Thank you Deena.
This is one of those books that I know I will reach for when I will need more joy, inspiration and new ideas :-)