A Conversation With Jennifer Strong McConachie, Author Of Go Far
On prioritizing her passion projects, navigating the publishing process, and finding creativity in endurance training
Jennifer Strong McConachie is a writer, marketing professional, and endurance athlete who lives in Wichita, Kansas, an underrated haven for training for ultra runs and ambitious international mountain adventures. She has scaled several of the Seven Summits, completed 100 milers, and swam in open water endurance events. She says, “You don’t have to live in California or Colorado if you want to have fun outside.” Her first book coming out in September, Go Far: How Endurance Sports Help You Win At Life, is part memoir, part self help, aiming to teach readers how to face adversity, set big goals, and most of all, have fun.
I was introduced to Jennifer by my good friend, Amy Huser, who was previously featured on HHC. Amy said we would hit it off talking about writing and running. And she was right. Earlier this summer, Jennifer shared about why she wrote a book, how she navigated the publishing world, and how she finds time in her busy schedule as a mom of two and full-time professional for her creative projects.
How do you describe your crafts, both the personal and professional crafts?
I would say that my craft is writing. I think I was writing before I ever would have called myself a writer. I just loved recording life and feelings in the form of a journal, scrapbook, pictures, or blog. Then getting into my professional field, I’ve worked at an advertising agency for the past 16 years, and I’ve worked with more than 200 organizations writing about them, their missions, and their products. The writing style changes if I’m writing for a website or an internal newsletter or a sales piece or a print ad. The breadth and depth of playing with words through my professional career has been really enjoyable. But it’s work, so I’ve always made sure to write personally on the side about my travels or adventures or what I’m experiencing.
When did you decide you wanted to write a book?
Being a big reader, I grew up always wanting to be a novelist or an author. I kind of put that away as life happened. But that idea was always there in the back of my mind. Someday I want to go to all 50 states, I want to go to all 7 continents, and I want to write a book. So after I had just had my first child and I was going back to work, I just felt something inside me that I needed to process and get out. I sat down one day and was like, I don’t want to just write about me and my experiences and what I’ve learned, but I want to write about it in the context of self help. I turned it into “this is how I worked full time and traveled the world and competed in ultra runs and marathon swimming and mountain climbing.” The book is Go Far: How Endurance Sports Help You Win At Life and that speaks to traveling the world, but it also speaks to going far multidimensionally—physically, emotionally, spiritually. It was really amazing to look at my life in that way. It’s a memoir, but not just in a story form; it’s in an application form as well.
Pre-order your very own copy of Go Far: How Endurance Sports Help You Win At Life here.
What do you want readers to understand once they finish your book?
I want people to feel empowered, and I want people to think differently. You don’t have to go out and say, I want to run so I’m gonna sign up for a marathon. There’s a totally different way that you can go about it. You don’t have to follow the same culturally-prescribed path; you can make your own path. There’s nothing wrong with following the culturally-prescribed path, but if you kind of think a little bit differently and implement some of these tactics, you’re going to gain some other things along the way that might even be more fun. This book is going to teach you how to do that.
How did you navigate the publishing process?
Working in an ad agency, I’m constantly, in essence, getting a new job every time we get a new client. I have to learn a whole new industry, whether it’s nonprofit, financial, health care, public health. You learn all about that field in addition to that business. So in a sense, I was kind of in the middle of a reinvention when I began pitching. I had become a mom so I had to learn how to be a mom. And then I had gone back to work so I had to learn how to be a working mom. And then I had to figure out how to be an author. And then part two of that is actually getting the book published. As a book lover, I really wanted to go the traditional publishing route, so that was a whole another industry to learn about and to study. I think that you just have to have a lot of energy to do it because it is kind of like getting an additional job. There’s the job of writing the book, the job of publishing the book, and then afterwards, the job of marketing the book.
How did you organize who you were pitching before landing on Penguin Randomhouse?
Sort of going back to project management, I made a massive spreadsheet. They have guides and stuff online. I don’t mind looking at that for direction, but I always like to create my own structure based on what works for me. I’m not really a template person. The main thing I did was researched. You have to research what fit is right for you. If you’re writing a middle-grade fiction book, you’re not gonna go pitch the health and lifestyle wellness publishers. Finding your niche just takes a lot of research. But when you do, you know you’ve written a sound proposal that an editor or agent or publisher is going to want.
What financial advice do you think you could offer other creative women?
I have traveled all over the world and competed in races and all kinds of crazy things, and I haven’t ever had sponsorships. I didn’t really have time to pursue that because I was working. When I wasn’t working, I was training or traveling. I feel like people say that you have to find a job that you love. Well, you need to have a job that’s a job. There’s no getting around that part. Your job is your job and you do that because it gives you the money you need to pay your bills and pursue your hobbies. You do those in your free time. Luckily my book talks a lot about how to find that time. That’s what I did. I’m still working at my job during this process because work is work. So I guess my advice is keep your day job because your creative outlet is going to have to be on the side until it becomes something else. Even now that I’m working on my dream project, it’s still work. I guess there’s just no getting out of doing the work.
Connect with Jennifer on all forms of social media through her website.
In what ways can endurance training be creative?
My book has a ton about that. If you’re training for a 100-mile run or a marathon or a 5K, sometimes if you follow conventional wisdom, you’re gonna go out, run on the road, run straight, sweat and suffer, get injured, hate it, and never run again. That is what my book wants you to avoid. I talk a lot about how to find the fun when you’re training, especially for really hard things. When I was training for my 100-miler, I would get up at 1 a.m. and run all night because it was summer in Kansas. That sounds absolutely terrible and I had to give some things up during that time period, but I gained a lot too. Some of those stories are in the book.
I have some really fun stuff that I apply with my kids right now. My daughter is 2 years old and my son is 10 months old. I’m not going to say I invented it, but I coined the term, strollerblading. Basically, I take the athletic stroller out and put on my rollerblades. I go a little bit faster than running. You can go anywhere, in your neighborhood or to the park. You might look funny in your rollerblades and with your stroller, but you’re gonna have a good time.
When do you work best? How do you make time for yourself?
You make time for what’s important. When I wrote the book, I had my daughter but not my son yet, and I had some different ways of structuring my time. One of the things from my book is the 24-hour clock. I am so glad that I learned that because having kids, we live on a 24-hour schedule. We are up all hours of the night and we have to function. But also, I’ve learned that you’re not gonna get everything done. It’s just not gonna happen. You find what’s the most important to you. You find a way to do the top three things every day. As a creative person, you’re not gonna be happy and you’re not gonna be fulfilled if you don’t have a creative outlet. So I just do it. It just happens. It just comes out. Because I know that my soul and my spirit needs that. It doesn’t work to deprive myself. I can go a couple days, but then I just have to write something or create something or do something.
How does that creativity manifest?
Just anything. Writing lists, cooking, trying new food, getting a new fruit or new tea concoction, playing with chalk outside, designing some sort of crazy kids activity. But to tie it back to the endurance sports application, I would call that the creative movement chapter. Listen to that buzzing and then feed it. Maybe that’s going to a dance class, or it’s a run outside without the ear buds.
Are there any goals you want to put out into the universe through this interview?
I have lots of them and right now, I would say they’re small. I have two young children and we’re just coming out of COVID. It doesn’t really make sense for me to have a big travel goal right now. I could say I’m working on my next book. We’re going to go to Colorado with the children, and we’re going to go hiking in the mountains and taking some of those things I wrote about in the book and applying them in this new way with children. Then, of course, I have the big, multi-day adventure goals. But it’s gotta be the perfect concoction to put my plan into action. So when that magical mixture happens, I can go and do it. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there.
Before you go…
Learn: I’ve just started sewing and this is my favorite instructional site so far (Seamwork)
Read: A thoughtful essay about being bad with money but learning to be better (Gloria Liu for Outside)
Indulge: The best recipe for matcha chocolate truffles (Candice Kumai)
