National Network for Equitable Library Service

Record-holding endurance hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis explores what makes women uniquely successful in the growing sport of endurance hiking and how those lessons can allow women to push themselves past their limits and to challenge their body, mind, and life. Unlike many sports, endurance and extreme sports record-holders are not separated by sex; there is no record-setting male and record-setting female--there is only a single record-holder. The more the sport requires endurance, the less significant the gap between women's capabilities and men's capabilities becomes. What is it about women's bodies and minds that gives them an advantage in endurance sports that they don't have in other areas? And how can women harness the power of that endurance and use it to excel in all areas of their lives? Jennifer Pharr Davis, the former record holder of the FKT (or Fastest Known Time) on the Appalachian Trail, tells the story of her meteoric rise in the world of endurance hiking and in doing so unpacks key traits that make women uniquely suited to endurance. With a storyteller's ear for fascinating detail and description, she takes us with her as she sets the record on the Appalachian Trail and introduces us to the mentors who helped her to identify and unlock different facets of her endurance capabilities. She reveals and investigates just what it is that gives women the ability to excel at endurance sports in ways that men cannot. She empowers women to delve deep into their minds and bodies to find the variables that will unlock phenomenal endurance in each individual, and inspires readers to take that new-found endurance and use it to hit new personal records in everything from sports to the boardroom.