For readers who enjoyed Alexandra Heminsley's Running like a Girl and Bryony Gordon's Mad Girl, Running for my Life is a hilarious, heartfelt and inspirational story of one woman's marathon journey through mental illness.
Throughout her life, Rachel Cullen followed a simple yet effective route straight to mental health misery. Suffering from bipolar disorder, and hungry for approval at any price, she settled for flunked relationships, an ill-fitting career, and poor health to match. Whilst mindlessly seeking a utopian vision of 'normality' that she was mis-sold and so desperate to achieve, the solution seemed increasingly illusive.
Stuck in this endless cycle of disappointment with her life, and not knowing how to handle the strain of her mental illness, she put on a pair of old trainers. She'd never been able to think of herself as a 'runner', and the first time she forced herself out the door, she knew it would hurt. Everywhere. She just didn't realise how much it would heal her, too.
Interspersed with Rachel's real diary entries, from tortuous teen years to eventually running the London Marathon,Running for my Life will make you laugh, cry, and question whether you really can outrun your demons. Rachel Cullen is a writer, blogger, author and runner. She is also a reformed ex-commercial litigation solicitor. Amongst other things, she has abseiled off Table Mountain, jumped out of a plane at 11,000ft, climbed Mount Fuji, worked on a game reserve in South Africa, qualified as a scuba diver and ridden an ostrich. This is her first book, detailing her very personal journey from bipolar non-runner to medal-winning marathon runner - and how she discovered happiness along the way.
Follow Rachel on Twitter @writtenbyrach and read her blog at rachelcullenwrites.co.uk - she would love to hear from you. For readers who enjoyed Alexandra Heminsley's Running like a Girl and Bryony Gordon's Mad Girl, Running For My Life is a funny, heartfelt and inspirational story of one woman's marathon journey through mental illness. The running community, including women's only running groups, are growing massively in the UK. Running groups on Twitter: Women's Running UK (39k), Runner's World (1.3m), The Running Bug (62k), Brooks Running (196k), Run England (17k).
With massive running communities all over the world, including the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, there are cultures of sport all over the world to be tapped into. Combining two trends - mental health and sport - Running For My Life is perfect narrative non-fiction for the female market. It is a book about exercise and diet, mental health and wellbeing, but is more inspiring than Joe Wicks and more accessible than Matt Haig. Tapping into the current lifestyle, fitness and mindfulness trends, Running For My Life encapsulates many of the ideas of the new breed of self-help book: striving for better in body and mind, achieving personal perfection, using your mind and body to create balance, mindfulness and becoming a healthier, better version of you. But Rachel knows that becoming 'better' is not as simple as most books profess. Her story encourages women to find their own running, and not rely on lifestyle or self-help books in the same way ever again.
