Run Fat Bitch Run
by Ruth Field
Book Review 11/3/12
If you are looking for some ego stroking and hand holding to get you off the couch you ain’t going to find it here girlie. Run Fat Bitch Run is hard on reality and soft on specific running techniques and training plans. The no nonsense approach that Ruth Field has chosen doesn’t try to be a book about performance running or weight loss, just a get up off your ass and do it motivator as the title suggests.
The target audience is certainly female with a profile like: non runners, casual runners, newbie mums and older age groups. Through a series of letters to the Grit Doctor from her husband Olly, mother, sister and other contributors the text is broken up in to easily digestible chunks. Ruth aka The Grit Doctor also includes her own journal type entries throughout to push the message of running, eating, motivation and other considerations. She includes tips for health and safety, motivation meltdown and what to do if you fall off the wagon. The language is direct and honest which she does deliver with a mental health warning. Not for the easily offended. That’s comforting coming from a woman who is a Barrister by profession.
I was slightly embarrassed when I went to purchase it as the girl serving me behind the desk was seriously overweight and I have a BMI within the 20-25 range. I felt I needed to explain that I was doing a review and encouraged her comments and feedback. She seemed happy to discuss it with me and added that it was selling well in that particular store. I was obviously more sensitive to the subject matter than her.
Ruth’s ‘whatever it takes to get you out the front door’ approach encourages you to look at yourself in the mirror naked as you challenge yourself to ‘run fat bitch run’. The journey then takes you on an eight week gentle training programme with the hope that by the end of the period you have developed an addiction for running and that you look and feel amazing. The six step programme includes a sense of humour but also the reality that running is hard work. ‘Hard is the new black’ she adds so that you are under no illusions of the physical, mental and emotional demands of the task at hand. ‘Fun is what you have after you have been running and it is what you are because you run’.
The Grit Doctor started to get under my shell after a while to the point that I found myself thinking ‘Screw you, beatch. If you can do it Ruth so can I!’
Certain elements of style and repetition grated a little on my own delicate nervous system and I found myself wanting to achieve the results for a number of bizarre reasons. The first one being pride; I sure as hell ain’t going to let all the x-fat bitches pass me out on my next 10k. Secondly, she stirred a little bit of female envy in me. I am seriously jealous of Ruth’s fabulous years in France and her doting hubby Olly who is now a keen runner and contributor. Also her success in writing a widely read fab and fitness book without much technical details or sciency bits.
So as I pound the streets motivated by my own running and writing interests I have Ruth sitting on my shoulder, taunting me, challenging me and helping me to be the best that I can be in all aspects of my life. ‘And thus like the wounded oyster, I mend my shell with pearl’. I raise my glass and my game to a book which has the potential to inspire runners of all shapes and sizes because of its simplicity and accessibility. The message in a nutshell is run, drink more water and eat less crap.
Bring it on Ruth, let the games begin.
Thanks
