Born To: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen - A Book Review That Inspired Me To RUN

Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

This book, by Christopher McDougall, was a joy to listen to. Mr. McDougall takes us on a trip across the world with a central theme focused on the mysterious Caballo Blanco. Using a modern style of including side stories and extended built in footnotes (which I quite appreciate I might add) we learn all about running, the bodies of evidence that suggest we should all be running more, and how intuitively, we should know we are all naturally built for running with as little on our amazing feet as possible.

I listened to it twice on CD and want to listen to it again! I am rather sure it reads as well as it sounds and I imagine I would have devoured it in printed format. It was probably better to listen to it only while commuting so I could digest it more slowly over a couple of weeks instead of reading it all at once in a weekend.

Caballo Blanco

The central theme of the book, that ties everything together, is about Christopher McDougall's quest to figure out why he can't run in modern shoes without getting suffering in pain. In his quest, Caballo Blanco seems to hold the key. Through this central character, we learn about an ancient tribe, the Taruhumara, or "The Running People", who still traditionally run marathons on a daily basis because that is how they get around. We learn about the ultra-marathon community, and how a broken down runner can be transformed by running easy and smoothly with minimal to no shoes.

Why We Are Built For Running

The non-central central character side-stories and footnotes where about the biology, bio-mechanics, the sports shoe industry, and the state of our running nation today.

Magnificent book! I loved it from start to finish. The author is just a mediocre runner like I am, but he is an excellent writer. In this book he manages to tell the stories of several people and groups of people who have interests in long distance running (50 miles or more). One of the most interesting is a tribe of native people (the Tarahumara) living their traditional culture in the nearly inaccessible area of Copper Canyon in Mexico. The Tarahumara also happen to be some of the best endurance runners in the world. Many other characters really spice up this book: Caballo Blanco, the reclusive runner whose dream it is to organize an ultra-marathon in the heart of the Tarahumaras' homeland; Barefoot Ted, the barefoot runner; Jenn Shelton, the champion female runner; Jenn's running boyfriend, Billy Bonehead; and the author himself; just to name a few. The book also describes a lot of the research that has been done into the human history of running and explains that as humans we are specially evolved to be endurance runners and how the modern human non-running culture is contrary to our nature and our heritage, and how the modern running shoe is causing us to un-learn the proper way to run. 

The information in this book by itself is enough to make this book worthwhile for everyone. But the way it is written actually makes this book as enjoyable as any spellbinding page-turner I can think of




CachedSince:{ts '2024-11-21 00:47:18'}