Best Running Books for Women 2025 | Trails and Tribulations Running Adventures of Susie Chan
Holly Woodford - WomensSportsStore.com Editor
What Makes This One of the Best Running Books for Women
A dose of inspiration is something every runner needs, especially when mid-winter miles feel a bit soul-sapping. As someone who loves reading stories of women who’ve faced adversity and come out stronger, I picked up Trail and Tribulations Running Adventures of Susie Chan with mild curiosity. I knew her from Peloton coaching and her outrageous Death Valley Ultra in 40°C heat, but I wasn’t convinced I needed another running book in my life.
Turns out, I absolutely did. This is one of the best running books for women I’ve read in years and my top pick for 2025.
Susie Chan isn’t just a runner; she’s an icon of endurance and resilience. She only started running at 35, and yet her achievements are astonishing: she’s completed the Marathon des Sables more times than any other British woman, set the 12-hour treadmill World Record, and became one of the first women to complete all six World Marathon Majors. But it’s her backstory, not the medals, that truly makes this book unputdownable.
From earning minimum wage at the British Museum to losing her home, leaving a dysfunctional marriage, raising a child alone and undergoing cancer treatment, Susie’s life could have broken her many times over. Instead, she ran through it literally. Her mantra, “You never regret a run,” becomes even more meaningful when you realise how many times running held her together.
What make this one of the best running for women and sets this book apart from other running memoirs is Susie’s voice. She’s warm, wickedly funny and wonderfully human. One page will have you laughing at her self-deprecating humour; the next, you’ll be floored by the grit it took to keep going. Her adventures span the Moroccan desert, the Peruvian jungle, Death Valley, the South Downs and a humble track in Tooting, and she brings each place to life with honesty, humility and joy.
For women, especially midlife women, this book is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late to start, never too late to achieve something extraordinary, and never too late to discover what your body is capable of. Susie shares her recent battles with perimenopause which I found both useful and reassuring as I suffer many of the symptoms she talks about from low energy to joint pain and night anxiety. Susie didn’t become a world-class endurance athlete because she had an easy life. She became one because she kept choosing to run.
Final verdict:
If you’re searching for one of the best running books for women, this is it. Inspiring, empowering and beautifully written, Trail and Tribulation Running Adventures of Susie Chan is a perfect gift for female runners of all levels, from parkrun regulars to future ultra finishers. It’s the book that will get you out the door on grey mornings and remind you that your strongest miles might still be ahead.
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Final verdict:
Running Adventures is an uplifting, empowering and beautifully human read. Whether the female runner in your life is a weekly parkrunner or deep into ultra training, this book will be a page-turner from start to finish and the perfect dose of winter motivation.
