by Rachel Toor
• Start slower than you think you can go. Way slower. Run so slowly you feel like you could hold that pace all day.
• If you need to walk, walk.
• Build up your distance gradually.
• Expect to have bad days. Everyone has bad days. Sometimes a lot in a row. Don’t get discouraged, just keeping lacing up your shoes.
• You won’t need water unless you’ll be out for a long time—or it’s very hot.
• Just get your butt out the door. Say you’ll only go for ten minutes. Or one mile. Or around the block. Once you’re out there, you can change your mind. (Once you’re out there, you will likely change your mind.)
• Always run facing traffic. And on the softest possible surface. Asphalt is better than concrete, and dirt is best of all.
• Listen to a good book. I once accidentally ran for five hours because I couldn’t stop listening to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. If you wear earphones, make sure you can still hear traffic.
• If you’re a program-follower, follow a program.
• If you’re a log-keeper, keep a log.
• Be yourself. We run, like we make sandwiches, in our own image. Think about who you are and what motivates you. Do you need a goal? Sign up for a 5K. Are you a social person? Ask a friend to join you. Do you like instruction? Find a club.
It delights me to hear from people who are just starting to run and from those who have set or achieved goals. I love knowing if anything I’ve ever said has helped anyone even a little bit. I can’t promise wisdom or even wit, but I will respond as quickly and as honestly as I can. Find me at www.racheltoor.com. Friend me on Facebook. Tell me your story.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As every author knows and most acknowledge, writing a book is hard and lonely work, but if you’re fortunate, you get help from good and generous people along the way. I’m grateful for the smart early readings I got from Julie Bramlet, Robin Ebenstein, Malini Gandhi, Candace Karu, Natalie Kusz, Jane Ligon, Ruth Monnig, Rachel Scott, and Hannah Voves. I heart my agent, Elise Capron, and am indebted to everyone at the sunny Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. My experience at Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers has been the stuff of author fantasy. Editorial assistant Angie Chen started running after she read the proposal. Some of her thoughts, sentences, and aches are—shockingly—exactly the same as Alice’s, especially the funny stuff. I’m grateful to my rocking publicity and marketing team at Macmillan, MacRunners Ellen Cormier, Molly Brouillette, Kelly McCauley, and (not-yet-a-runner) Kathryn Little. Getting early feedback from the veteran editorial staff at FSG was—how do I put this?—freaking amazing. I must confess to a huge girl crush on editorial director Joy Peskin. About executive editor Wes Adams, I have nothing to say. (Beyond what is written in the dedication to this book. It makes him twitchy when I gush.)
ALSO BY
RACHEL TOOR
Admissions Confidential: An Insider’s
Account of the Elite College Selection Process
The Pig and I
Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Copyright © 2014 by Rachel Toor
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2014
eBook edition, June 2014
macteenbooks.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Toor, Rachel.
On the road to find out / Rachel Toor.
pages cm
Summary: Alice Evelyn Davis, seventeen, has generally gotten all she wants from life but when her college of choice rejects her, problems with her best friend arise, and she faces an unexpected loss, her newfound interest in running helps get her through.
ISBN 978-0-374-30014-2 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-374-30015-9 (e-book)
[1. Running—Fiction. 2. Rats as pets—Fiction. 3. College choice—Fiction. 4. Family life—Fiction. 5. Best friends—Fiction. 6. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.T64307On 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2013041345
eISBN 9780374300159
