Downhill: Life Cycle of a Gravity Goddess, The

In 1994, Marla Streb left her promising career as a biomedical researcher to climb onto a bicycle and hurtle herself down the side of a mountain at speeds topping fifty miles an hour. And at the age of 36, she continues to compete and win against women ten years younger at the highest levels of her sport-downhill mountain biking.

Astonishingly enough, this is not the most intriguing aspect of Marla Streb. Downhill chronicles her life before racing-her training as a classical pianist, bicycling throughout Europe with her companion turned boyfriend Marc, crisscrossing the country in a battered polka-dotted VW bus, and, perhaps the defining moment of her life, the loss of her brother. As she recounts her experiences with humor and grit, Marla Streb reinforces for all readers the need to abandon everything to pursue what you love and to live passionately.