A review by alisarae
The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher
5.0
Wow I knew Nike was bad news bears but they did Kara so dirty and their continued backing of Salazar is indefensible.
I'm glad that I had read Tyler Hamilton's book The Secret Race because it is mentioned several times and his tesimony was key to Kara's own understanding & recognition of modern doping techniques. Before Hamilton explained how Armstrong and co were doing it - to enhance recovery and increase training load - I think everyone who wasn't doping believed doping was still Mark McGuire style with 'roids lol. Hence why Kara didn't recognize the signs that her Alberto Salazar (who was closely professionally connected to Armstrong btw) coached her teammates on the techniques and successfully got away with it.
So that, combined with the other awful verbal and sexual abuse and bad faith contracts is just so disheartening and gross.
Kara's running career was important but I think what she has done since she left Nike has left more of a mark, and is what defines her career in my mind. Her contract with Oiselle, the way she has led the charge against Nike and for clean sport, and her openness to talking about contracts and money so that more female athletes can better advocate for themselves has really set her apart in the field of so many strong personalities in American professional running.
I'm glad that I had read Tyler Hamilton's book The Secret Race because it is mentioned several times and his tesimony was key to Kara's own understanding & recognition of modern doping techniques. Before Hamilton explained how Armstrong and co were doing it - to enhance recovery and increase training load - I think everyone who wasn't doping believed doping was still Mark McGuire style with 'roids lol. Hence why Kara didn't recognize the signs that her Alberto Salazar (who was closely professionally connected to Armstrong btw) coached her teammates on the techniques and successfully got away with it.
So that, combined with the other awful verbal and sexual abuse and bad faith contracts is just so disheartening and gross.
Kara's running career was important but I think what she has done since she left Nike has left more of a mark, and is what defines her career in my mind. Her contract with Oiselle, the way she has led the charge against Nike and for clean sport, and her openness to talking about contracts and money so that more female athletes can better advocate for themselves has really set her apart in the field of so many strong personalities in American professional running.