My boyfriend handed me the blue and yellow book in September, telling me it would motivate me to train for my upcoming half marathon in October. I laughed and said I would get to it eventually, promptly stuffing the paperback in my desk drawer, never to be heard from again.
Come April, the scuffed-up pages were calling my name and I finally relented to finishing my task. I figured, the marathon was coming up and I could really use the inspiration, even though I had stopped training. I had fallen out of my workout routine and fallen into a state of stagnant unhappiness.
Christopher McDougall’s 2009 book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, is an ode to the sport of running, and expertly acknowledges all its flaws and triumphs. A editor at Men’s Health magazine and writer for Runner’s World magazine, McDougall is certainly a credible source regarding this topic; he argues that distance running is the key to good health and happiness, and that evolution has actually produced human bodies specifically designed to run barefoot over long distances and durations. Furthermore, big brand-name footwear companies have helped quicken the rate of injury, making and selling shows with gel-based cushioning and complicated support architecture, which claim to stabilize the foot but actually reduce the natural movement of the body. McDougall specifically calls out Nike (much to my dismay), claiming that they both created and exploited the need for high-tech shoes. There are no studies that prove anti-pronation and stability control is helpful to the human body and, in fact, there was no stigma around “pronation” and other body movements until sales entered the picture.
McDougall also provides a great example of how running is better without fancy footwear in the Tarahumara. An isolated tribe living in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the Tarahumara are renowned for the their ability to run crazy distances in excruciating heat without fatigue or injury. They run in sandals made of old tire rubber and find their strength in diet (pinole, chia seeds, grain alcohol) and form (upright posture, flicking heels), and have won amazing races in this minimalist fashion.
Born to Run tells the story of not only the history and science of running and the Tarahumara, but also of legendary races such as the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon and his own befriending of “Caballo Blanco”, an eccentric expatriate who joined the Tarahumara and worked to create an amazing race between sponsored American marathoners and the elusive tribe in the Copper Canyons. McDougall himself is a participant in this first-of-its-kind race and works this storyline in—creative nonfiction that is sometimes dramatic but not inaccurate.
Overall, the book reads just like Caballo Blanco’s race—there are twists and turns, obstacles and tangents. The different narratives of the Tarahumara, McDougall’s quest to find them, running physiology and history, glimpses of the wild, and the lives of famous and not-famous marathoners and doctors all run their course, eventually coming together and bring the reader to the finish.
I will be the first to admit that I buy into the language of corporate sellers. Anti-pronation, extra stability control, might as well be wearing a suit of armor for all the help it’s doing? Sign me up. But reading more about the science behind running has inspired me to go minimalist…eventually. For now, I’ll stay with my Saucony Guide 7s and Nike Frees, at least until I can talk with a doctor about gradually making the switch and avoiding injury. It’s given me a goal for the future—to get closer to my natural stride and stop altering it with too-expensive footwear, because “running isn’t about making people buy stuff” (287). According to the book, our running peak occurs at age twenty-seven, which gives me another goal and also allows me to be a little lighter on myself, when I’m upset with my slow pace. The many references to the Boston Marathon bring the narrative closer to home, helping me both envision running the course at age twenty-seven (at my peak in minimalist shoes) and come to terms with the fact that I will not be running it this year.
Most importantly, reading Born to Run reminded me why I felt drawn to running in the first place. Some of my favorite quotes include:
“Suffering is humbling. It pays to know how to get your butt kicked.”
“[Going slow] takes more guts than going fast.”
“She could care less about races; she was just hooked on the joy of bustin’ out of prison.”
“I didn’t love running, but I wanted to.”
“You don’t stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running”
“We’ve got a motto here-you’re tougher than you think you are, and you can do more than you think you can.”
“If you don’t think you were born to run you’re not only denying history. You’re denying who you are.”
“But yeah, Ann [Trason] insisted, running was romantic; and no, of course her friends didn’t get it because they’d never broken through. For them, running was a miserable two miles motivated solely by size 6 jeans: get on the scale, get depressed, get your headphones on, and get it over with. But you can’t muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it, like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.”
So if you’re like me, and you’ve started to treat running as a chore rather than a natural part of life, run to your nearest bookstore and grab a copy of this read. Just because we no longer need to run from predators or to prey, doesn’t mean we have to stay sedentary.
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“Born to Run”: Christopher McDougallÂ
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