Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World

Fleshman felt focused and determined as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Trials neared. At the Diamond League in New York, four weeks away from the Olympic Trials, Fleshman won her race, feeling confident and assured, but then felt an abrupt, stabbing pain in her foot as she went to warm down. An MRI indicated a possible stress fracture in her navicular. Fleshman and her team decided that rest was safest. She realized that she probably wouldn’t be able to win the Olympic Trials in four weeks but hoped to make the top three and therefore qualify for the Olympic team.

Nike gave Fleshman T-shirts with photos of her face on them for her friends and family; Fleshman worried that they would jinx her. Posters declared that four was the “loneliest number” (144). Fleshman’s friends and family arrived.

During the race, Fleshman was unable to keep up with the fastest pack (comprising three women), so she tried to slow the chasing pack. A runner got around her, and she came in fifth. She learned that all the women ahead of her planned to compete in the 5,000-meter race at the Olympics (some of the women who had beaten her preferred the 10,000

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