Runner Mary Cain’s memoir delves into the the toxic, abusive world of youth sports — but there are exhilerating highs as well

Ana Maria Rus

Mary Cain was born to run. At 12, she joined her school’s varsity track team — and was faster than the seniors. Soon, she was breaking records and winning championships.  In 2013, at just 16, she joined Nike’s Oregon Project, run by the famed coach Alberto Salazar. Based at the shoemaker’s Beaverton, Ore., campus, the elite running club offered state-of-the-art training facilities. As Oregon Project runner Kara Goucher wrote in her 2023 memoir , “Everything we’d need to win was at our