Suzy Favor HamiltonFast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness

What surprised me most about Suzy Favor Hamilton's "Fast Girl" was how conflicted I felt while reading it. I remembered the reaction some people had when the news broke of Hamilton's work as an escort, which was condemnation. I wanted to avoid any knee-jerk judgments as I read "Fast Girl." For the most part, I succeeded. Hamilton describes growing up in small-town Wisconsin with several siblings. Her older brother's behavior becomes increasingly reckless, and he's diagnosed with bipolar disorder before taking his own life. The struggles Hamilton faces during her collegiate and pro running career--body image and body shaming that leads to an eating disorder, along with pressures to win--are completely legitimate and, at this point, beyond debate. Any book that brings these issues to light is doing female runners a service. Then there's the infamous fall at the Sydney Olympics, where Hamilton, after leading the 1500, takes a tumble on purpose because faking a fall and injury will help her save face for losing the race. This seems a byproduct of the pressures placed on Hamilton but is nonetheless a bizarre act for a pro runner. I wasn't sure how to feel about it. A lot (maybe all) professional athletes experience the same pressures. Why did Hamilton respond so differently? It was a coping mechanism caused, as Hamilton explains, by her own bipolar disorder, undiagnosed at the time. I was troubled by how Hamilton justifies all her bad behavior with the bipolar diagnosis. I don't doubt she's bipolar, especially given her family's history with the illness, but there are bipolar individuals who are able to do their jobs without purposeful self-sabotage. The italicized sections on bipolar disorder in "Fast Girl" seem brief and inserted into the text intermittently, almost as an afterthought. The disorder becomes an easy umbrella Hamilton can use to justify her bad decisions, which seems unfair to other sufferers of the illness. After a relatively quick gloss of Hamilton's early life, running career, and relationship with her husband, we get to the titillating portion of the book, what every male reader is likely waiting for: dirt on the author's stint as a high-priced Las Vegas escort. And this is the part Hamilton describes in the greatest detail and with the greatest enthusiasm. We get the sense she would still be an escort today if she hadn't gotten caught. What begins as intriguing--the escort lifestyle--quickly turns nauseating. Hamilton jumps into the lifestyle and quickly performs all sorts of acts with all sorts of strangers. Again, I don't want to be moralistic. If consenting adults want to do this, fine. What bothered me is that the whole time, Hamilton had a husband and young child back in Wisconsin. My own morality is such that people can do pretty much whatever they want as long as it doesn't harm others. But Hamilton's time as an escort was bound to cause terrible pain to her family. And again, I don't believe that being bipolar necessarily exempts a person from knowing the difference between right and wrong. Maybe I just wanted the author to have a more penitent tone. She made mistakes and learned from them. But even at the end, after the correct medication and sessions with psychiatrists, Hamilton seems wistful about her escort lifestyle rather than regretful of it. She ultimately torpedoed her real estate job and likely caused financial harm to her family, but now, as an author and public speaker, Hamilton has benefited from her actions, with houses in Wisconsin and California. I guess that bothers me. It also bothered me that, despite the sections of "Fast Girl" where Hamilton basically describes herself as a terrible student who had to cheat to get through school, she's written a book. It's not a literary masterpiece, but it's solid, well-structured. But after some digging, I discovered the book was ghostwritten. Why didn't Hamilton state this up-front? It seems like another level of dishonesty. The fall during the Olympics, the secret escort work, the resulting book--all of it can be tied to this notion of dishonesty, so when Hamilton says her disorder made her do it, I'm skeptical. Hamilton's "Fast Girl" is an interesting story, competently told, but ultimately I'm left wondering: how much of it is actually true?

"Fast Girl" is a fast read!I gave it 5 stars not so much for the story she tells, but for the passionate way she tells it.It's a breathless ride through a running career that still ranks her as one of America's best-ever middle distance runners, and later through a whirlwind year as an "escort" in Las Vegas, where she ALSO became highly ranked (by an Escort Ranking service!).From her first race, through 3 Olympic Games (1992, '96, 2000), to her year in Vegas (2012), she always seeks to be the best.She MUST be--to make her dad, her coaches, and even her home state of Wisconsin proud.She is always wanting to please others---her parents, coaches, then her "clients", whether in her husband's and her's real estate business, or her call girl clients!But there are tragedies, and dysfunction, to overcome.Her older brother Dan commits suicide.Her best friend Mary Hartzheim (a fellow Wisconsin runner) dies at age 37 of cancer.Her parents and other siblings remain silent about Dan's mental problemsm thus forcing Suzy into silence about her own battles with what eventually is diagnosed as bi-polar disorder.(She believes it's depression when her problems first arise.)She never turns to steroids to make her a better athlete (though she CONSIDERS doing so at one point!), but she does inflict upon herself an eating disorder---bulimia.She says she's a virgin when she meets future husband Mark Hamilton her freshman year at Wisconsin.From the beginning, their relationship is loving, but has problems.Their first several years together are good ones, but after failing to win Gold in the Sydney Olympics, and after a few more years of being a "fast girl", she retires from the sport.She'd been not only a great runner, but being a beautiful woman, she always had to deal with sometimes sexist attentions from various men.(She gets a breast reduction because men kept ogling her bouncing breasts as she ran!)Her husband agrees to a 20th anniversary "threesome" in Vegas, hiring a woman named "Pearl" for the occasion.It's Suzy's first time with a woman, though she's fantasized about it many times.She loves it, and soon comes into contact with people who help her become an escort herself, albeit on a part-time basis.She in fact travels monthly from Wisconsin to Nevada to meet clients, until she decides she wants to move there.(Mark eventually buys her a condo there---to save on expensive hotel rooms!Was Mark an enabler?Yes!But you get the idea Suzy didn't NEED enabling.Her own demons---her insecurities---enabled her dangerous adventures.(In one visit, she and Mark try skydiving just hours before she meets a client for sex! One dangerous adventure isn't enough!)While one stated symptom of being bi-polar is hyper-sexuality, it seems to this write that her problems go far beyond bi-polarism.They seem to start the day she was born---as the LAST of 5 children!Being LAST wasn't good.She had to be FAST---in fact, the fastest, the best!"Fast Girl" is a fascinating book, well told by a woman who admits to being a bad student in high school and college.As they say, you can't stop reading until the final page!Suzy Favor Hamilton is a historic figure in American track and field.(Her 800 time of 1:59.11 remains the Collegiate Record to this day, 25 years later! Her 3:57.40 for 1500 meters is 4th best by an American!)Whether she is truly strong and happy, as she professes to be now, remains to be seen.As a big fan of Suzy, I wish her the best.

Chegou em perfeito estado e a história é bem contada!

An easy to read bio beach read , I didn't remember who Suzy was so I came to her story with no judgement or morality. A good tale of the Olympics , how many young people are more keen on the partying afterwards and how it feels not to be one of the winners. Suzys slide towards the lure of Vegas and the money of escorting is certainly interesting [ if it was fiction you would say it pushed the boundary of belief]. Her husbands acceptance forgiveness is a blurred line as is her inability towards personal responsibility for all the poor choices she so easily took. Still now she seems in a kinder place with herself and this is worth a read

Interesting look at bipolar disorder & the whole Olympic athlete scene. Not sure if it's helpful to distance oneself from one's behaviours by saying "That's not me, that's my disorder" though - I can understand the reasons why people do that, but equally you could say that un-medicated is their natural state, that the disorder is part of who they are. Maybe not who they want to be, but it's good to own your decisions & behaviours. Glad it's turned out well for her anyway.

I found this book extremely interesting, just because it covers so many things that are considered tabu in our society. I'm not gonna lie, I did find myself torn between being impressed by this woman and in the next moment feeling disgusted. However, I am pretty sure that is exactly the reaction that is expected. Her whole life was a rollercoaster, torn between two lives, the runner snd the escort.I have to say the book as such is very well written. I found it hard to put it down (just one more page.... One more chapter...) and I got emotionally involved almost immediately. I strongly recommend that you read this book if you are open to some complicated stuff. If not, then perhaps you should choose another book.

I didn't think I would enjoy this novel as I don't usually read autobiographies and the topic seemed salacious, but Hamilton tells her story in a compelling way. And the fact that you can look up the video clips of what she is discussing makes it even more unique.