One of the things you learn early in running is this truth: there is always someone, somewhere who is slower than you and there is always someone, somewhere who is faster than you. I'm a big believer that the sooner you make peace with this fact, the more you enjoy running. But, if you are one of those who knows no one can beat you, then you really need to read this book. And for the rest of us? Well, it's just too good to pass up.

A Harvard grad, Christopher McDougall spent a number of years working for the AP in Africa, covering, among other things, the Rwandan genocide. Returning to the States, he began freelancing for magazines like Outside, the New York Times Magazine, and Men's Health. It was under the auspices of this last publication that McDougall initially headed down to Mexico, searching for legendary runners.

The story he discovers, and then becomes a part of, is truly remarkable. It's unlike anything I've come across before and may well change your perspective on running and the industry it has inspired. Like all good stories (which aren't about girls), this one involves a ghost. The fabulously named Caballo Blanco is a mythic figure in the southwest. Maybe an ex-fighter, maybe a criminal, he is definitely a white man who disappeared into the Mexican Copper Canyons by choice, by running. When McDougall finally tracks him down, Caballo is just the sort of character you're probably imagining, and he leads McDougall down a rabbit hole which ends at the feet of the Tarahumara.

"My eyes popped open to see a dusty cadaver in a tattered straw hat bantering with the desk clerk. Trail dust streaked his gaunt face like fading war paint, and the shocks of sun-bleached hair sticking out from under the hat could have been trimmed with a hunting knife. He looked like a castaway on a desert island, even to the way he seemed hungry for conversation with the bored clerk."

The Tarahumara, or Rarámuri as they call themselves, are native Mexicans and probably the closest thing to mythic warriors that our world still contains. They can run and run and run, vanishing into the twisting canyons they call home even as you look at them. They are enduring phantoms when they have a mind to be. As I read the book, I pictured them as living Greek statuary, perfect ideals that few mortals could ever rival. They are not the distant stoics of an ancient past, however. If they had come upon Pheidippides (who died running from Marathon to Athens), they likely would have helped him into the shade, given him a drink, and then run clear on into Poland. When they want to, the Tarahumara know how to have a whooping good time, fueled by homemade moonshine that sounds like it would degrease your engine and your brain.

Ultimately, this book is one of those rare and perfect mixtures of an inherently great story with exactly the right teller. McDougall's prose is both journalistic and engaging from the first page. Even as he takes a rather long diversion into the history and evolution of running shoes, you are perfectly willing to go along with him. Like Caballo Blanco, you are already so hooked on the mythos of the Tarahumara that you both want to get back to story and also learn what secret wisdom they remember which the world has forgotten.

"I eased my hydration pack off my shoulders and got ready to sit down and rest. Better take a break now till we see what’s next, I thought, dropping the pack at my feet. When I looked back up, we were surrounded by half a dozen men in white skirts and pirate blouses. Between blinks, they’d materialized from the forest."

As the book rounds the half-way mark, all that you have read and learned begins to coalesce into one of the finest pieces of sports writing I have ever read. Not only do you get to see the Tarahumara in full flight, on their home turf, but it turns into one of the greatest footraces of all time. A small, motley crew of the finest modern ultra runners arrive to toe the line with these ghosts of the desert. McDougall moves seamlessly from outside observer to participant and tells the final chapters with a determination and senseless joy any runner will recognize.

If you're already a runner, this book will make you love it more. If you're not a runner, there's a good chance this book will make you one. ( )

la historia de una tribu oculta, un grupo de superatletas y la mayor carrera de la historia

I have very mixed feelings on this book. It's an easy book to read, and the story is fascinating, yet something about the author and the story just rubbed me the wrong way. I think it's all the hype in the running world surrounding the author and barefoot running. I was fascinated by the science behind barefoot running theory (see also the book The Well Dressed Ape) and I love to read about ultra-runners and the Indians were interesting so I don't know why the book bugged me. I guess I found the storytelling choppy (and hard to believen- are Jen & Billy really that crazy/stupid?) and I can't figure out why he's become a barefoot running guru since nowhere in the book does he ever say he's going that route. Or maybe he does and I just missed it, but he seems to be mocking Barefoot Ted (who in my minds eye is Coach from Survivor) right up until the very end. I think more than the barefoot thing, I was struck by the Scott Jurek stuff and the sheer joy of running. How he takes strength from being part of a group and the bonus of his easy going attitude is victory. It's worth reading but I won't be running out to get a pair of Vibrams any time soon. ( )

Headline: I love this book; you should read it.

For a more considered analysis read on...

Born To Run is a great book. It's a fantastic story, backed up with a load of fascinating research. If you're at all interested in running or have a slight curiosity why you're not while others inexplicably are, you should get a lot out of this book. I assume this covers pretty much everyone, so.... Read This Book.

McDougall has constructed Born To Run very well, effortlessly linking sections on
topics as diverse as evolutionary biology, anthropology, diet, physiology, and a great deal of history about endurance running and runners, with the surprising story of the creation of the "Mas Locas" ("Most Crazy") endurance race in the Mexican Copper Canyons. Thanks in part to a cast of great characters, the story itself is really fun and interesting, and that threads its way through a bunch of eye-opening anecdotes, facts and theories. In particular, McDougall reaches the startling conclusion that, far from running being an unnatural activity that inevitably leads to injury, humans have specifically evolved to be the best long-distance runners on the planet.

A lot of the hype around this book has centred on McDougall's argument that modern running shoes cause many of the injuries associated with running, and that going barefoot is a healthier way to run (as it is what we evolved to do). While McDougall's case seems strong - to this layman at least - it is a relatively small component of the book. Indeed McDougall himself uses traditional trainers (Nike Pegasus) during the book (although has since started using minimal or no footwear).

McDougall is a magazine journalist, and this shows through at times. Occasionally he builds up a lead-in to the next section a little too much; once or twice the tension he creates is a little artificial; and he may at times grab over enthusiastically for a soundbite. As a review in the Washington Post notes, McDougall sometimes reports incidents as if he were there, when we know he wasn't. I don't think this is to the book's detriment - it's just its style; I found it noticeable, but that's all.

I genuinely think that this is a book that could change lives. McDougall takes pains to make running seem accessible; he manages to convey his initial frustration with running (with which many will empathise), but then also communicates the interest which keeps him pursuing it, despite advice from his doctors to give up. He comes across as an ingenuous and incuisitive, and occasionally callow, everyman, and throughout his sheer enthusiasm for his subject shines through. It is a winning mix, which should draw a wide range of readers into his engaging and frequently surprising book.

There was one section of Born To Run which really took me by surprise. If you haven't read the book and think you might, I'd suggest reading no more of this review - you will probably enjoy reading it there more than here.

Anyway - for those still with me - McDougall covers some theories about the importance of running to the evolution of Homo sapiens. The basic idea is that we evolved for endurance running so that we could hunt animals (which could run faster over short distances, but not over a sufficiently long distance), which he backs up with lots of tantalising and intriguing evidence.

So far, so "okay, interesting". One of the biologists who conceived this idea, and in lieu of direct evidence, wanted to put it to the test, and tried hunting deer simply by chasing them until they could run no more. The problem he found was that he would lose the deer he was chasing in the herd, where they could rest while another was hunted for a bit. The experiment failed utterly, and the basis of the running theory of human evolution looked shaky.

However, based on another person's experience with the Bushmen of the Kalahari, the theory was adapted: the hunters do not just chase, they also track. They pick a particular animal, following its footsteps and other markers, and make sure it is singled out so that it couldn't escape back into the herd.

This then implies that the ability to follow a single animal - tracking - would have been entwined with running as an evolutionary advantage; running or tracking on their own would not have been anything like as much benefit. Tracking involves reasoning, time projection, empathy... even imagination; in short, some of the basics of consciousness.

That is, to me, such a surprising conclusion that I think it's worth reiterating: the theory posits that the human mind evolved alongside, and in some ways as a direct consequence of, our evolved ability to run.

I have no idea whether this theory (clearly over-simplified here) is accepted or discredited or under review in the scientific community (although it is supported by the human brain showing massive development at the same time our bodies seem to have adapted to running).

Whichever way, it is a fascinating and surprising hypothesis, and elevates Born To Run from a sporting memoir to something loftier. McDougall goes from discussing his problems with training shoes, to profound thoughts about the origin of the species - literally from the banal to the sublime.
( )

As a bare foot runner myself i've been meaning to read this book for a very long time, but it just kept on sitting in my to-read pile always being overlooked for some exciting fiction to read instead.   But now, finally, i dived in and got it read.

And it's really good.   Christopher has a way of writing that is just captivating and really takes the reader into the depths of the Copper Canyons to meet the Tarahumara and to experience a world that was left behind a long time ago.

To be able to look back in time in this way with the Tarahumara and to see just what super healthy, wonderful, running machines, Natural humans truly are when they're not pampered by modern appliances and poisoned by modern diets.

This book is a must for anyone who runs, especially for anyone who is even thinking about taking up running, and also for anyone remotely interested in Human evolution and what makes a Homo sapien so special amongst all other animals.

So if you haven't read it yet, just do so.   It's wonderfully written and a super page turning read meeting some really interesting characters (all true life characters) along the way.   It's not only a great read but a great journey.

And, having enjoyed his writing soooo much, i'm now very much looking forward to reading Christopher's other books.

Bye for now. ( )