Customer Reviews

Born to Run

5 star:		(726)
4 star:		(119)
3 star:		(36)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Born to Run succeeds at three levels. First, it is a page turner. The build up to a fifty-mile foot race over some of the world's least hospitable terrain drives the narrative forward. Along the way McDougall introduces a cast of characters worthy of Dickens, including an almost superhuman ultramarathoner, Jenn and the Bonehead--a couple who down bottles of booze to warm up for a race, Barefoot Ted, Mexican drug dealers, a ghostly ex-boxer, a heartbroken father, and of course the Tarahumara, arguably the greatest runners in the world.

Born to Run is such a rip-roaring yarn, that it is easy to miss the book's deeper achievements. At a second level, McDougall introduces and explores a powerful thesis--that human beings are literally born to run. Recreational running did not begin with the 1966 publication of "Jogging" by the co-founder of Nike. Instead, McDougall argues, running is at the heart of what it means to be human. In the course of elaborating his thesis, McDougall answers some big questions: Why did our ancestors outlive the stronger, smarter Neanderthals? Why do expensive running shoes increase the odds of injury? The author's modesty keeps him from trumpeting the novelty and importance of this thesis, but it merits attention.

Finally, Born to Run presents a philosophy of exercise. The ethos that pervades recreational and competitive running--"no pain, no gain," is fundamentally flawed, McDougall argues. The essence of running should not be grim determination, but sheer joy. Many of the conventions of modern running--the thick-soled shoes, mechanical treadmills, take no prisoners competition, and heads-down powering through pain dull our appreciation of what running can be--a sociable activity, more game than chore, that can lead to adventure. McDougall's narrative moves the book forward, his thesis provides a solid intellectual support, but this philosophy of joy animates Born to Run. I hope this book finds the wide audience it deserves.

My wife handed me Born to Run about 24 hours ago and said "you might like this." Having run quite a bit but nursing an achilles tendon injury for about 3 years, I had almost given up on my dreams of getting back into marathon shape. 24 hours (and very little sleep) later, I feel inspired, awed, and enlightened, and I have Christopher's wonderful book to thank.

In a nutshell, I have not been this entralled by a story since Shadow Divers, Seabiscuit and/or Into Thin Air. Christopher's recounting of the forbidding Copper Canyons, the amazing Tarahumara, ultramarathoners young and old, and the greatest race you've never heard of is enough for me to give this a rave review. But like the aforementioned books, there is so much more to this story, not the least of which was Christopher's own quest (and amazing resiliency) to run without pain. Finally, he put to words many of the thoughts and feelings I've had about running but am unable to articulate. And Christopher is a great writer - I laughed out loud many times throughout. He has a style akin to a Timothy Cahill - a great wit that was obviously aided by a wonderfully intriguing cast of characters.

As the sun was coming up this morning I was a bit sad to see this book end, and am already contemplating picking it up again. But only after I strap on the old, beaten up sneaks and get in a quick jog. Thanks so much for writing this book - I hope it changes lives and perspectives in the process.

I have to ditto other readers who said this book changed their life. And that is not hyperbole. Prior to reading this book I viewed myself as a fast short distance runner and I rarely, if ever, ran more than 3 miles at a time. I felt this was just the way things were and that I should accept it.

"Born to Run" completely changed my internal thought process about running. I was already aware of the running shoe issue. I've been slowly using Vibram Five Fingers for over a year and I've been trying to alter my gate from heel strike first to toe strike first. I found that it just takes patience and time to adapt in getting those muscles developed. McDougall is no liar - we've been screwed over by the running shoe companies. The first time I ran with the Vibram's I could barely walk for a week I was in so much pain. Now I can climb mountains in them.

What changed for me after reading this book was just the simple notion that I wasn't limited by some personal flaw or lack of will. I was failing to run longer distances because both my mindset and my running style were flawed. One, we can all run farther than we think. Two, don't get obsessed over speed or time, just run at a pace that feels comfortable. Your body will tell you when you can step it up a notch. In other words, just enjoy the experience.

Before I started the book my max was 3 miles with a hard push on the first two. Five weeks after reading the book I can now do 8 miles or more. I can probably do 10 or more now, but haven't pushed because I'm still working on getting those calve muscles stronger and adapted to the new running style. Don't get me wrong - I'm running slow! But wow, does it feel good. I'm enjoying running more and I feel better than ever before. My blood pressure, which was high, is now below normal and I feel great. One of the points McDougall makes in the book is that many experienced ultra runners don't run that fast. Many of them are just doing 10 minute miles. That's part of what caused me to rethink my obsession over speed.

Unfortunately, as a few critics have pointed out, McDougall's book does come off as hyperbole in some parts. I also strongly disliked his focus on extremists. "Barefoot Ted" is one example.

Just search the net for the term "barefoot running" and you'll find some of the most absurd absolutist garbage about how the only way to run is barefoot and anyone who stoops to using shoes (even the likes of Nike Free shoes or the Vibram's) is misguided or even stupid. The sad reality is that we have all been lied to by the shoe companies - Nike especially. These lies are pushed on us by the alleged "experts." I recently picked up a pair of Nike Hayward Prefontaine runners. "Runners World" gave them a mixed review and slammed the shoe for not having enough support. So we have the barefoot absolutists telling us to ditch our shoes and we have the mainstream press telling us we need to wear the very shoes that are making us weaker runners. And the accepted normal shoes do make us weaker - I was told by a doctor after two major ankle injuries that I'd be limping for life if I was injured again. That ankle is the strongest it has ever been after changing my running style.

You don't change people's minds by using extremists to make your case. And that's unfortunately what comes across at times in McDougall's book. I would have personally preferred more information about his personal transformation and less on the likes of "Barefoot Bob" and the other runners who share very little in common with everyday people who just want to get into shape.

I don't think "Born to Run" is going to be that interesting to those who are already hardcore runners. The more you already run, the more the hyperbole will stick out. But I do recommend the book to those who thought like I did about what was physically possible for them. After reading this book you won't be able to watch a marathon again and think of how it's beyond your abilities. You won't make it into the Olympics, but the odds are you can run a marathon.

And speaking of marathons, McDougall makes an earth shattering point about older runners and their ability to outrun teenagers. The age at which you can beat a teenager (in long distance running), assuming you've trained appropriately, will blow your mind. Since it's one of McDougall's "secrets" I won't post the spoiler here. It's just one of his many points that will make you rethink your own ability to run.

EDIT: I have to scoff at all the critics of this book who say to take it all with a grain of salt. Each person is obviously different so your mileage will vary. Nonetheless, the central message in McDougall's book is that YOU can run and you can run longer distances than you think.

I served in the Army and I was a runner in high school. And yet, at almost 40 - with heart disease and a stent implant! - I'm now running longer distances than I have ever run in my life. One of the reasons is simply because I took McDougall's advice. I'll never run ultra-marathons, but that doesn't matter.

There are nuggets of truth and inspiration in this book along with all the exaggerations. If you're already a long distance runner there's very little meat for you to digest and the hyperbole will annoy. But if you're one of the many people who've never gone more than a few miles there's a powerful message here.

I now can outrun all 3 of my nephews (15 to 24) nephews in the long distance. On one fast 4.5 mile mountain hike (Mt. Monadnock in NH) I beat my athletic 15 year old nephew by more than 3 minutes. He led the entire run/hike until the end when I left him in the dust after he ran out of steam. He had the speed, I had the stamina - just like McDougall presents it in his book.

If, when you finish with this book, you don't immediately get yourself outside and run like hell, then there's probably not a drop of living blood in you. This book is the perfect antidote to everything that's wrong with modern running and the way to find everything that's still so right with it. Even if it were all a work of fiction McDougall's tale would still be worth the price of admission. Fabulous.

One of my favorite things about Born to Run is how the author explores several technical myths (mostly perpetuated by athletics companies) about exactly what you need to do in order to be a great distance runner, and dispels them.
I've been a casual runner ever since my late teens, but I've never been able to get beyond the 8-mile mark due to some knee and hip problems. Information in this book led me to restructure my form and diet after a long break from running, and now I'm doing 6 miles a couple times a week and my old joint issues haven't so much as reared their heads. I'm training for my first half-marathon in November, and I plan on doing a full one soon thereafter if all goes well.

But the technical stuff only occupies the smallest percentage of what this book is all about, and isn't the best reason to check it out. Not by a long shot.

Born to Run is, at it's heart, an adventure story. It's hard to imagine a book about distance running being very exciting, but Christopher McDougall's (completely true) account is full of so much action, it could be made into a Hollywood blockbuster. From his surprisingly dynamic and exciting descriptions of the few footraces he chronicles in the book, to the close-call brushes with death the characters must face (among them some chilling encounters with territorial drug traffickers), this book is as entertaining as any novel I've ever read. Near the end of the book when the author describes the race mentioned in the title, I swear it was like watching Top Gun for the first time when I was a kid.

And yet that's not all this book has to offer.

Born to Run has the power not only to make you love running, but to spark in you a greater love for being human and humanity as a whole. McDougall makes an extremely powerful case for several novel ideas, among them that the ability to run for extremely long distances (a very unique ability in the animal kingdom, and indeed the major one that sets us apart from other creatures, second only to our intellect in importance) was the primary reason for our species' success in it's earliest infancy. He also suggests to us that because running is so intimately tied to our survival as a species, it is also intimately tied to our most important emotion for survival: Love. Love is by far the biggest theme evident in this book, and it doesn't seem at all like a coincidence that it shines through to an amazing degree in the personalities of each and every one of the athletes mentioned. Love of life, love of running, love of others, love of self.

To sum it all up, this is a truly three-dimensional work of literature that had a profound effect on me. Intellectually, it changed the way I think about the human race, our origins, and our place in the world. Physically, it gave me information that allowed me to improve my performance as a runner and aim higher as an athlete. And spiritually, it reinforced the lessons of unity, compassion, peace, and brotherhood that great men and women have been trying to teach us for thousands of years which still, somehow, get pushed to the wayside when we look for the easy way out.

Best $20 I ever spent.

When have you seen a book with this many reviews and none below 5 stars? You know what this book is about from the other descriptions and reviews. Here's how I feel about it. This is the first time I've reviewed a book on Amazon.com and it's the first thing I wanted to do when I finished the book ten minutes ago. The second thing I will do is email many of my friends to urge them to get the book. I will NOT loan them my copy! My wife will be reading it next, though I interrupted her so many times to read portions of it that she is already thinking of people to tell about it.
I've been a serious runner (sometimes more/often less) for 40 years and have read countless articles and books about running. This is the best. It satisfied my running soul and my academic mind. I couldn't wait to finish it and I didn't want it to end.

If you'd asked me for a review halfway through this book, I would have said that it was pretty good, but it was also annoying. I enjoyed the travel adventure aspect and the and sociology study of the Tarahumara people of Mexico, but I was annoyed by the author's hipster language and gung-ho, X-games style. (I find that type of writing to be designed to make you feel guilty that you're not as cool or fearless; but I always think, well, how does this guy's wife and two kids feel when he leaves for 5 weeks to go on an adventure for an article?)

But at some point, the author found his stride (or perhaps I found a way to match his stride), and I was hooked. McDougall has a fantastic finishing kick, in the sense of tieing things together. He wraps up disparate ideas from sociology, history, biology, modern athletic competition, nutrition, and X-games type partying into one satisfying whole. And, contrary to making me jealous, the book potentially will change my life. I'm starting to work on the running style that he advocates, and I hope that it will reduce or eliminate the persistent heel pain I've had for more than 5 years.

McDougall, is an established freelance writer who's not afraid of challenges (war reporting, X-games types of adventures, etc.). He's not your average guy, despite his effort to portray himself as such. But the one nagging thing for him is that he's been unable to become a decent distance runner despite years of effort, expensive equipment, and the help of a multitude of doctors, massagers, and physical therapists. At the point of his worst failure, he decides to find out if a radically different type of running style will give him the breakthrough that he is seeking.

And thus, McDougall goes in search of the Tarahumara, "tribes" of natives who live in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico. Living in an extremely harsh environment and desperate to hide from centuries of human predators (conquistadores, Mexican government, drug smugglers), the Tarahumara have developed super-human abilities to run long distances in the heat and without much water or food. Are they just rumor, in the same way as the legendary running monks and other endurance specialists? McDougall sets out to find out if they exist, and then if they have learned techniques that can be translated to the lifestyles of the rest of us.

The descriptions of wandering around Tarahumara territory are fascinating. The land is a bunch of dirt trails and shantytowns of 5-20 buildings, set impossibly deeply in canyons and almost invisible from 50 yards away. But with the help of an American, Micah True, who's refashioned himself as Caballo Blanco and become a part of the Tarahumara community, McDougall gets to meet some runners and see them in action. He's convinced that they are doing things differently, and he agrees to help Caballo Blanco by publicizing Caballo's dream of a race between the Tarahumura and the world's best distance runners. Actually, the Tarahmuara have raced -- and won -- ultramarathons throughout the US West; but Caballo's idea is to bring the modern world's runners down to Tarahumara territory instead.

As we build towards the race, McDougall explains how the Tarahumara run: literally. The Tarahumara run in homemade sandals from discarded tires, and they can go 50, 60, 100 miles a day over unforgiving terrain. The different is that they move differently than those of us who use highly padded running shoes. They use their whole feet and their legs to absorb impact, rather than landing on their heels. Apparently, our high-tech shoes have made our arches soft, which has then pressured our Achilles, calves, ankles, etc., and that's why so many of us distance runners have chronic injuries.

In exploring this difference, McDougall gives us quick history and biology lessons, covering evolution, the Olympics, and utra-distance running. It's great stuff. And he introduces us to Scott Jurek, perhaps the world's most accomplished ultra runner, and a never-quit guy; up-and-comers Jenn Shelton and Billy Barnett, two surfer-hipsters who eschewed proper food and normal training; Dr. Joe Vigil, an elite running coach who also believed in the innovations of the Tarahumara; and Rick Fischer, a runner and entrepreneur who first brought the Tarahumara out of the Canyon. Other characters abound, too.

It all comes together unforgettably on the road trip down the Canyon, complete with near-death experiences, warm cultural exchanges, and the ultimate respect that world-class athletes have for each other.

And if this book has exposed me to a running style that will reduce my pain, then it will literally change my life. How often can you say that about a book?

There is no confusing the message of this book and it starts with the title. It is a message of adventure, inspiration, hope, revelation, and living your life unconditionally. If you are a runner, you will want to read this book so slowly, not wanting it to end. And, you will most likely be wanting to head out for a run after each chapter anyway. If you are a frustrated runner with injuries or a beginning runner, this book gives you HOPE and possibility. Quite simply, McDougall lays the foundation of how we were all Born to Run and tells you why we "should" be running.

Most of all, this book leaves a lasting "runners high" for runners and non-runners alike. This is a story about following your passion and how powerful self belief can be.

We are all born to run, but maybe even more important, we are born to be individuals, and McDougall is masterful at taking a true running adventure with real characters and illustrates how powerful running can be to life, and how powerful life can be to running.

It's not that you aren't warned by the title of this book: three superlatives in one sentence should tip you off that there is a lot of hyperbole in this book.

"Born to Run" is an entertaining read, as long as you don't mind that a lot of the facts and characters are exaggerated. It's kind of funny to read that American River 50m is a "hot, hilly, and hazardous cross-country ramble" when in fact the race is one of the easiest 50m races in the country: most of the course is flat and run on a bike path! Also, the Leadville 100m raceis hardly the beast it sounds like: it's not even in the top ten hardest 100m races.

What bothers me more than these embellishments is the depiction of ultrarunners as a bunch of fringe folks or freaks. I'm an ultrarunner myself and have run numerous 50m and 100m races. The overwhelming majority of ultrarunners are perfectly well adjusted people who lead normal lives, and this book does a real disservice to them. Depicting ultrarunners and their accomplishments in a breathless and exaggerated tone also undermines the central argument of the book, i.e., that running long distances is something normal that humans are well adapted to do.

This brings me back to the main message of the book, which makes the book worth reading. The sections on the evolution of humans and the science of running are quite interesting and compelling. Focus on those and read the rest with a grain of salt!

One more thing. If you go to Luis Escobar's site [...] and scroll half way down you can see what looks to be the non-photoshopped version of the cover image, along with photos of the Copper Canyon race described in the book (apparently it was 47m and not 50m like the book says. Details, details ...).

I am not a runner, but I want to become one now. I picked this book up not as a fan of ultra distance running- I had always considered ultra distance runners as masochistic freaks driven by the runners high as their body tries to cope with this grueling activity that they were never meant to do. After reading this book, I still think ultra distance runners are freaks, but not masochistic ones. They are freaks because they are some of the few who understand that man was designed to run, and run long distances. The book centers around trying to unearth the secret of the Tarahumara Indians- how are they able to run long distances on insufficient nutrition on bad terrain with little foot protection without injury? While doing this, McDougall winds through the entertaining history of ultra running and its quirky athletes along with scientific evidence for the health benefits of endurance running, and barefoot endurance running in particular. This book is funny, mesmerizing, thought-provoking, and, if you thought you were not cut for running, may make you give it another go. Highly recommended.