Chapters in Bookselling: New England Bookseller Stays the Course

When bookseller Sarah Nixon talks, the words come quickly, and the voice is upbeat and confident. It's easy to imagine that parents and young readers find such a buoyant tone reassuring as they browse the children's section of the Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In a recent telephone conversation, a questioner found himself racing to keep pace with Nixon as he scribbled notes.

Interviewers aren't the only people that Nixon's outpacing. On October 13, she led all women among the total field of 3,055 finishers in the Boston Athletic Association Half Marathon. One hour, 22 minutes, and 34 seconds after the race's start, Nixon crossed the finish line, placing first among women in the 13.1-mile road race, which begins and ends in Roberto Clemente Park in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.

"It was very exhilarating," Nixon told BTW. "I was surprised to win it this year because I'm not in my fastest running condition."

"Fastest" may be a relative term. Nixon led for most of the race, until Simonetta Piergentili caught her near the 10-mile mark. The duo dueled for about a mile, when Nixon moved ahead, holding the lead until the finish. An experienced runner, who competes in about two marathons a year, Nixon was defending her 2001 first-place finish in Boston's inaugural half marathon. The Boston Athletic Association also organizes the storied Boston Marathon, and in April, her time of 2:53:38 in that race placed Nixon 33rd in the women finishers.

Nixon began winning races several years before she joined the staff at Wellesley Booksmith in 2000. "I started running when my two youngest children were babies just to stay in shape," said Nixon, "and I discovered I was good at it." After she had won a few local four- and five-kilometer races, Nixon began training for longer distances, building toward the Boston Marathon. In the ensuing years, the 38-year-old Nixon has run marathons in Paris, Stockholm, and New York. She runs with Merrimack Valley Striders and also trains regularly with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team, whose efforts raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, located in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Closer to the store, Nixon has coached a girl's running team (part of the national Girls on the Run program), and she combined a bit of bookselling with roadwork. "I had a whole collection of books on strong women," Nixon recalled, including Pam Munoz Ryan's Riding Freedom and Esperanza Rising (Scholastic). "I even included a few advance readers copies of titles -- and then they thought they were totally cool, that they were on the top of everything."

Nixon's sights are set on the London Marathon, on April 13, 2003, and, until then, she'll continue to juggle family, work, and training. Part of the regime includes reading the folklore and children's literature of the country that hosts the race, and finding time for speed work and longer runs throughout the week. And there's always the extra perk of working at the bookstore. "It's great because I can stop here during a training run to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom because it's on the course," said Nixon. -- Dan Cullen