Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Review: The Grace to Race: The Wisdom and Inspiration of the 80-Year-Old World Champion Triathlete Known as the Iron Nun

The Grace to Race: The Wisdom and Inspiration of the 80-Year-Old World Champion Triathlete Known as the Iron Nun The Grace to Race: The Wisdom and Inspiration of the 80-Year-Old World Champion Triathlete Known as the Iron Nun by Sister Madonna Buder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book after seeing a video on Facebook about this 80-something nun who did over 300 triathlons and many IronMan competitions. OK, I had to bite. How? How does someone with this many decades under her belt keep putting one foot in front of the other for hours on end?

So I read it. (This can be done in just a couple of hours.) While Sister Madonna is someone you will quickly put on your "I gotta meet her one day" list, the book itself is not well-organized or well-written. I felt like I needed a motion discomfort bag just from the mish-mash of dates and time periods. I like linear. This book is not linear. It reads like a stream-of-consciousness essay.

Then there are the details of her many mishaps. (It truly is a miracle that this woman is still alive.) She has been hit by cars (frequently!!) and, through what seems like a combination of bad judgment and poor planning, she has survived more physical blunders and collisions than most of the people I know ..... added up together!

Finally, I hoped to have some useful take-aways. What is her diet like? Mediocre, it turns out. Well, how about her carefully engineered training program? There isn't one. She wings it, apparently.

The woman's faith and spirit are the stuff of legends. She is a character. I really would love to spend an afternoon with her. I just did not get the athletic inspiration I was seeking from the book.


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