Running Women
New Author Stephanie J. Reents
• • • • • • • • November 2025 • • • • • • • •
No doubt, Golden Gate Park is an ideal spot to go for a run. And with more than 1,500 running clubs in the United States and dozens here in SF and the Bay Area, running is as popular as ever.
Yet, according to one college professor who turned into a novelist, few stories exist about women in competitive running events. Author and college Professor Stephanie J. Reents’ debut novel, “We Loved to Run,” significantly decreases that void.
“There are not enough fiction novels out there in the public consciousness about women athletes,” says Reents, “especially about women runners in competitions”.
Case in point, as Smithsonian Magazine points out, in its 72 years, Sports Illustrated has spotlighted less than five percent of women as athletes or coaches on its cover.”
San Francisco-Westside-based author Martha Conway agreed, as she was a guest speaker at the book event featuring ‘We Loved to Run’ on that Wednesday evening.
“I was lucky enough to read early scenes of ‘We Loved to Run’ said Conway, and I could tell immediately that it would be brilliant - and it is.”
Conway, who has lived in the Westside area of the City for decades and has been featured at book launch events in and around the neighborhood, hopes the response to Reents’ novel by San Francisco readers will be encouraging.
Conway explained. “The story follows a collegiate cross-country team hoping to get to the Nationals. The team of women are both competitive with and supportive of each other. Each character has her own issues, doubts, quirks and strengths, and I couldn’t wait to read how the team pulled together or pulled apart by the end.”
Reents has been writing short stories and criticism for years. Yet getting this novel together took time. The COVID-19 pandemic provided her with the incentive to complete it.
“I initially started the novel in a first person plural voice (like the ‘we’ of a team) while at Graduate School back in 1999,” said Reents.
The enthusiasm was there, but as Reents explained, “it was difficult to pull together a plot.”
“I put it aside. Then I would try again,” she said. “And then after a while, try again.”
As the years passed, she embarked on her teaching career after earning an MFA, but it was always at the back of her mind.
Jogging/Running has always been a part of human experience since ancient times, hence this is where the word ‘Marathōn’ comes from.
Until recently, little attention has been given to women in competitive sports. Case in point, as Smithsonian Magazine points out, in its 72 years, Sports Illustrated has spotlighted less than five percent of women as athletes or coaches on its cover.
Much of that reason concerns money, especially for professional and competitive marathons and cross-country events. (Permits, planning, etc.)
Money was the argument/debate not too long ago when World Cup champion soccer player, Megan Rapinoe, led the U.S. Olympic team to victory in 2012 at the Olympic Games in London.
Reents believes this will continue to change with more consciousness-raising and more women participating.
Set at a New England liberal arts school over 30 years ago, amid the traditional ‘seven sisters’ colleges of Western Massachusetts, the novel speaks of a team of young women who have their sights on the 1992 New England Division Three Championships.
Amid the competitive atmosphere, they must work as a team.
When one of their teammates displays erratic behavior, the team must face issues and problems outside of the discipline of competition.
When asked about elaborating a little more, Reents said. “The team has to let go of the things that divide them.”
“I don’t wanna give away the whole story.” “You will have to read the book,” Reents said.
Released two months ago in August of 2025, reviews of ‘We Loved to Run’ have been positive.
Netgally Book Review praised Reents work as “a beautifully told story.”
The website continues… “Told from the perspective of the six fastest team members, ‘We Loved to Run’ deftly illuminates the intensity of female friendship and desire and the nearly impossible standards young women sometimes set for themselves. With startling honesty and boundless empathy, Stephanie Reents reveals how girls—even those in competition—find ways to love one another and turn feelings of powerlessness into shared strength and self-determination.”
Queen Anne Book Company of Seattle praised it as “a fearless debut novel.”
And, among its posts by readers, The StoryGraph said… “This book has a quiet kind of intensity that surprised me.”
Reents says an unexpected pleasure of having the book published is, “it has allowed me to have conversations with women in sports and with women runners that I wouldn’t have had.”
We Loved to Run by Stephanie J. Reents is available at Bookshop Westportal.
Visit the Bookshop Westportal website for more details.
Jonathan Farrell is a local reporter.
October 2025
