Pretty good for a girl

Sports is the quintessentially American dream ticket out of an unhappy life. For Leslie Heywood, champion high school miler, running was just such an escape, her feet flying away from a childhood filled with violence and enforced silence. On the track she mattered, on the track she was certain of who she was. But the world of sports was still a world uncertain of whether it wanted to allow girls in, and Heywood ran headlong into the arms of her coach and then into a collegiate team whose standards for body-fat percentages and diets and training left every athlete struggling with eating disorders and serious injuries from overuse. She kept running, and winning, until she ran too far. No one knew how to help her or stop her. She almost ran herself to death-- until she had to learn to stop.