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AS GOOD AS GOLD
One woman, nine sports, ten countries, and a two-year quest to make the Summer Olympics
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Here’s the dust jacket synopsis …
“Imagine George Plimpton. Except he’s got real athletic ability. And he’s a woman. And she’s taken on a challenge that makes Paper Lion look like a brisk game of Go Fish.
Meet Kathryn Bertine, elite triathlete, former professional figure skater, and starving artist. In the summer of 2006, Bertine was out of a job, a home, and a general sense of direction when ESPN staked her to a dream: she was given two years to make the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing—by any means possible. As Good As Gold is the hilarious, heroic account of Bertine’s serial exertions in the realms of triathlon, modern pentathlon, team handball, track cycling, road cycling, rowing, open water swimming, racewalking, and—fasten your seatbelts—luge.
On her journey, the obstacles range from jet lag to jellyfish, flat tires to dating disasters, knuckle bashings to road rash. But, as time starts running out, Bertine doesn’t sweat the small stuff, only the large–like scouring the globe for a tiny nation to adopt her, and pushing her body and mind as far as it will go. Maybe all the way to China.
Between harrowing, but laugh-out-loud episodes of triumph and humiliation, Bertine takes short “Water Breaks” to contemplate the ins-and-outs of fan mail, failure, rehydration, nasal reconstruction, and what it really means to be an athlete.
Kathryn Bertine swims, runs, and rides like a champion–and her writing is victorious; mining literary pleasures from her physical pain and her spiritual tenacity. In As Good As Gold, Bertine proves she has something more valuable than an Olympic medal. She’s got Olympic mettle. When it comes to the human heart, she takes the gold.”
El Tour de Tucson 2008, Team XOOD
Thanks for visiting my website! While my Olympic quest with ESPN finished in September of 2008, and 2009 was another great year of racing, the start of 2010 promises another busy adventure. I’ll be racing for Trisports Cycling p/b Eclipse Racing, (and for St. Kitts and Nevis, internationally) and awaiting the publication of my second book, AS GOOD AS GOLD, which is due out in April 2010 by ESPN Books. Please drop me an email if you’d like to be put on the mailing list for the book’s release, or if you’ll be at/near any upcoming races.
Please click on the “Where’s KB? Notes from the road…” link for short updates while I’m at races.
You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter:
www.facebook.com/kathryn.bertine
http://twitter.com/KathrynBertine
In the meantime, I’ll be posting cycling columns on the Examiner.com site and Travis Rodgers Now. Click the links below for the most recent headline. Click often. It helps feed me.
http://www.examiner.com/x-3266-Womens-Cycling-Examiner
KB takes the national Time Trial and Road Race titles in St. Kitts and Nevis
Not exactly my normal cycling kit. I usually wear a bikini. Kidding. Thanks so much to Aaron Goodman Photography for the ESPN photo shoot.
