"In her youth Kate Ashbourne was a runner with world class talent - but never truly proved herself against her peers. Twenty-four years later, she has one last chance: if she can finish high enough in the Sacramento Marathon, she will qualify for the Olympic trials where she acn run with the best. Knowing she much have optimum training and preparation, Kate enlists the support of her closest friend, Angie Mandelli, who is expending her considerable energies in obsessive fury at the rapist who is terrorizing Sacramento. The grueling, pitiless demands of top flight athletics transform both women. Angie discovers in herself new levels of determination - and a rich depth of loving in her mercurial lesbian nature. Kate looks at her destructive family with totally altered perception. As Kate and Angie grow in their strength and power, the Marathon looms larger and larger in importance. But the homicidal path of the rapist is moving inexorably closer to the two women."
