An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits Americas best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougalls incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Review
Book Description
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the worlds greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.
Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexicos deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.
With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Christopher McDougall
Question: Born to Run explores the life and running habits of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexicos Copper Canyon, arguably the greatest distance runners in the world. What are some of the secrets you learned from them?
Christopher McDougall: The key secret hit me like a thunderbolt. It was so simple, yet such a jolt. It was this: everything Id been taught about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirthits going to hurt, and requires special exercises and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with quickly with minimal damage.
Then I meet the Tarahumara, and theyre having a blast. They remember what its like to love running, and it lets them blaze through the canyons like dolphins rocketing through waves. For them, running isnt work. It isnt a punishment for eating. Its fine art, like it was for our ancestors. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middlebehold, the Running Man.
The Tarahumara have a saying: Children run before they can walk. Watch any four-year-oldthey do everything at full speed, and its all about fun. Thats the most important thing I picked up from my time in the Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. But all of that begins with your feet. Strange as it sounds, the Tarahumara taught me to change my relationship with the ground. Instead of hammering down on my heels, the way Id been taught all my life, I learned to run lightly and gently on the balls of my feet. The day I mastered it was the last day I was ever injured.
Q: You trained for your first ultramarathona race organized by the mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some of Americas top ultrarunnerswhile researching and writing this book. What was your training like?
CM: It really started as kind of a dare. Just by chance, Id met an adventure-sports coach from Jackson Hole, Wyoming named Eric Orton. Erics specialty is tearing endurance sports down to their basic components and looking for transferable skills. He studies rock climbing to find shoulder techniques for kayakers, and applies Nordic skiings smooth propulsion to mountain biking. What hes looking for are basic engineering principles, because hes convinced that the next big leap forward in fitness wont come from strength or technology, but plain, simple durability. With some 70% of all runners getting hurt every year, the athlete who can stay healthy and avoid injury will leave the competition behind.
So naturally, Eric idolized the Tarahumara. Any tribe that has 90-year-old men running across mountaintops obviously has a few training tips up its sleeve. But since Eric had never actually met the Tarahumara, he had to deduce their methods by pure reasoning. His starting point was uncertainty; he assumed that the Tarahumara step into the unknown every time they leave their caves, because they never know how fast theyll have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if theyre caught in a storm. They never even know how long a race will be until they step up to the starting linethe distance is only determined in a last-minute bout of negotiating and could stretch anywhere from 50 miles to 200-plus.
Eric figured shock and awe was the best way for me to build durability and mimic Tarahumara-style running. Hed throw something new at me every dayhopping drills, lunges, mile intervalsand lots and lots of hills. There was no such thing, really, as long, slow distancehed have me mix lots of hill repeats and short bursts of speed into every mega-long run.
I didnt think I could do it without breaking down, and I told Eric that from the start. I basically defied him to turn me into a runner. And by the end of nine months, I was cranking out four hour runs without a problem.
Q: Youre a six-foot four-inches tall, 200-plus pound guynot anyones typical vision of a distance runner, yet youve completed ultra marathons and are training for more. Is there a body type for running, as many of us assume, or are all humans built to run?
CM: Yeah, Im a bigun. But isnt it sad thats even a reasonable question? I bought into that bull for a loooong time. Why wouldnt I? I was constantly being told by people who should know better that some bodies arent designed for running. One of the best sports medicine physicians in the country told me exactly thatthat the reason I was constantly getting hurt is because I was too big to handle the impact shock from my feet hitting the ground. Just recently, I interviewed a nationally-known sports podiatrist who said, You know, we didnt ALL evolve to run away from saber-toothed tigers. Meaning, what? That anyone who isnt sleek as a Kenyan marathoner should be extinct? Its such illogical blatherall kinds of body types exist today, so obviously they DID evolve to move quickly on their feet. Its really awful that so many doctors are reinforcing this learned helplessness, this idea that you have to be some kind of elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement.
Q: If humans are born to run, as you argue, whats your advice for a runner who is looking to make the leap from shorter road races to marathons, or marathons to ultramarathons? Is running really for everyone?
CM: I think ultrarunning is Americas hope for the future. Honestly. The ultrarunners have got a hold of some powerful wisdom. You can see it at the starting line of any ultra race. I showed up at the Leadville Trail 100 expecting to see a bunch of hollow-eyed Skeletors, and instead it was, Whoah! Get a load of the hotties! Ultra runners tend to be amazingly healthy, youthful andbelieve it or notgood looking. I couldnt figure out why, until one runner explained that throughout history, the four basic ingredients for optimal health have been clean air, good food, fresh water and low stress. And that, to a T, describes the daily life of an ultrarunner. Theyre out in the woods for hours at a time, breathing pine-scented breezes, eating small bursts of digestible food, downing water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with the miles. But heres the real key to that kingdom: you have to relax and enjoy the run. No one cares how fast you run 50 miles, so ultrarunners dont really stress about times. Theyre out to enjoy the run and finish strong, not shave a few inconsequential seconds off a personal best. And thats the best way to transition up to big mileage races: as coach Eric told me, If it feels like work, youre working too hard.
Q: You write that distance running is the great equalizer of age and gender. Can you explain?
CM: Okay, Ill answer that question with a question: Starting at age nineteen, runners get faster every year until they hit their peak at twenty-seven. After twenty-seven, they start to decline. So if it takes you eight years to reach your peak, how many years does it take for you to regress back to the same speed you were running at nineteen?
Go ahead, guess all you want. No one Ive asked has ever come close. Its in the book, so I wont give it away, but I guarantee when you hear the answer, youll say, No way. THAT old? Now, factor in this: ultra races are the only sport in the world in which women can go toe-to-toe with men and hand them their heads. Ann Trason and Krissy Moehl often beat every man in the field in some ultraraces, while Emily Baer recently finished in the Top 10 at the Hardrock 100 while stopping to breastfeed her baby at the water stations.
So hows that possible? According to a new body of research, its because humans are the greatest distance runners on earth. We may not be fast, but were born with such remarkable natural endurance that humans are fully capable of outrunning horses, cheetahs and antelopes. Thats because we once hunted in packs and on foot; all of us, men and women alike, young and old together.
Q: One of the fascinating parts of Born to Run is your report on how the ultrarunners eatsalad for breakfast, wraps with hummus mid-run, or pizza and beer the night before a run. As a runner with a lot of miles behind him, what are your thoughts on nutrition for running?
CM: Live every day like youre on the lam. If youve got to be ready to pick up and haul butt at a moments notice, youre not going to be loading up on gut-busting meals. I thought Id have to go on some kind of prison-camp diet to get ready for an ultra, but the best advice I got came from coach Eric, who told me to just worry about the running and the eating would take care of itself. And he was right, sort of. I instinctively began eating smaller, more digestible meals as my miles increased, but then I went behind his back and consulted with the great Dr. Ruth Heidrich, an Ironman triathlete who lives on a vegan diet. Shes the one who gave me the idea of having salad for breakfast, and its a fantastic tip. The truth is, many of the greatest endurance athletes of all time lived on fruits and vegetables. You can get away with garbage for a while, but you pay for it in the long haul. In the book, I describe how Jenn Shelton and Billy Bonehead Barnett like to chow pizza and Mountain Dew in the middle of 100-mile races, but Jenn is also a vegetarian who most days lives on veggie burgers and grapes.
Q: In this difficult financial time, were experiencing yet another surge in the popularity of running. Can you explain this?
CM: When things look worst, we run the most. Three times, America has seen distance-running skyrocket and its always in the midst of a national crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression; the next was in the 70s, when we were struggling to recover from a recession, race riots, assassinations, a criminal President and an awful war. And the third boom? One year after the Sept. 11 attacks, trailrunning suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country. I think theres a trigger in the human psyche that activates our first and greatest survival skill whenever we see the shadow of approaching raptors.
(Photo © James Rexroad)
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
From the depths of Mexicos Copper Canyon to the heights of the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon in Colorado, from the centuries-old running techniques of Mexicos Tarahumara tribe to a research lab at the University of Utah, author McDougall celebrates, in this engaging and picaresque account, humankinds innate love of running. There are rogues aplenty here, such the deadly narco-traffickers who roam Copper Canyon, but there are many more who inspire, such as the Tarahumara runners, who show the rest of the world the false limitations we place on human endurance. McDougall has served as an Associated Press war correspondent, is a contributing editor to Mens Health, and runs at his home in rural Pennsylvania, and he brings all of these experiences to bear in this slyly important, highly readable account. --Alan Moores --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"A tale so mind-blowing as to be the stuff of legend." The Denver Post
"McDougall's book reminded me of why I love to run." Bill Rodgers, San Francisco Chronicle
"Fascinating. . . . Thrilling. . . . An operatic ode to the joys of running." The Washington Post
Its a great book. . . . A really gripping read. . . .Unbelievable story . . . a really phenomenal book. Jon Stewart on The Daily Show
"One of the most entertaining running books ever." Amby Burfoot, Runnersworld.com
Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history. . . . [McDougall] seeks to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara the old-fashioned way: He tracks them down. . . . The climactic race reads like a sprint. . . . It simply makes you want to run. Outside Magazine
McDougall recounts his quest to understand near superhuman ultra-runners with adrenaline pumped writing, humor and a distinct voice...he never lets go from his impassioned mantra that humans were born to run. NPR
Born to Run is a fascinating and inspiring true adventure story, based on humans pushing themselves to the limits. Its destined to become a classic.Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know
Equal parts hilarity, explanation and earnestnesswhisks the reader along on a compelling dash to the end, and along the way captures the sheer joy that a brisk run brings. Science News
Born to Run is funny, insightful, captivating, and a great and beautiful discovery. Lynne Cox, author of Swimming to Antarctica
A page-turner, taking the reader on an epic journey in search of the worlds greatest distance runners in an effort to uncover the secrets of their endurance. The Durango Herald
Driven by an intense yet subtle curiosity, Christopher McDougall gamely treads across the continent to pierce the soul and science of long-distance running.Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers
About the Author
Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and is now a contributing editor for Mens Health. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Mens Journal, and New York. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.
Christopher McDougall is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact Random House Speakers Bureau at rhspeakers@randomhouse.com or visit http://www.prhspeakers.com/.
From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dan Zak In his first book, journalist and former war correspondent Christopher McDougall suggests -- or proves, depending on your degree of skepticism -- that running extremely long distances barefoot is the key to health, happiness and longevity. Brand-name footwear, with its gel-based cushioning and elaborate architecture of super-advanced support, is a common cause of athletic injury, he argues. And running steadily for hours at a time is not only therapeutic but also natural. Primitive humans did it constantly, catching and killing quarry simply by exhausting them in a marathon hunt. Reading all this is enough to make a modern American feel fat, stupid and lazy, especially given the hyper-toned, swift-footed focus of "Born to Run," an operatic ode to the joys of running. McDougall's subject is the Tarahumara, a tribe living frugally in the remote, foreboding Copper Canyons in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The Tarahumara are legendary for their ability to run extreme distances in inhospitable conditions without breaking a sweat or getting injured. They are superathletes whose diet (pinole, chia seeds, grain alcohol) and racing method (upright posture, flicking heels, clear-headedness) would place them among elite runners of the developed world even though their society and technology are 500 years behind it. It's a fascinating subject, and the pages of "Born to Run" are packed with examples of McDougall's fascination. Running is his religion (he's a contributing editor at Men's Health magazine and has written for Runner's World), and he approaches the sport with the reverence and awe of a disciple encountering the face of his god. In this case, the god is the Tarahumara. The book flows not like a race but like a scramble through an obstacle course. McDougall wends his way through the history and physiology of running, occasionally digressing into mini-profiles of top-tier racers and doctors, spinning off into tangents about legendary races like the Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon, while always looping back to the main narrative. Back on course, he describes his pursuit of the bashful, elusive Tarahumara and their secret to success on foot; his befriending of an eccentric gringo who became part of the tribe and is the key to McDougall's communication with it; and the realization of the eccentric's dream to pit big-name, corporate-sponsored American marathoners against the near-primeval Indians in a super ultra-marathon in the Copper Canyons. A race to end all races, in other words. A sprint to the finish between old and new. The scenario is a writer's dream. McDougall found a large cast of crazy characters, an exotic setting for drama and discovery, and a tailor-made showdown with which to cap the book. By and large it's a thrilling read, even for someone who couldn't care less about proper stride and split times and energy gels. McDougall's prose, while at times straining to be gonzo and overly clever, is engaging and buddy-buddy, as if he's an enthusiastic friend tripping over himself to tell a great story. He writes, for example, of a fellow-runner who "sluiced sweat off his dripping chest and flung it past me, the shower of droplets sparkling in the blazing Mexican sun." A relentless and experienced reporter, McDougall dramatizes situations he did not directly witness, and he does so with an intimacy and an exactness that may irk discerning readers and journalistic purists. "Born to Run" uses every trick of creative nonfiction, a genre in which literary license is an indispensable part of truth-telling. McDougall has arranged and adrenalized his story for maximum narrative impact. Questions crop up about the timing of events and the science behind the drama, but it's best to keep pace with him and trust that -- separate from the narrative drama -- we're actually seeing a glimpse of running's past and how it may apply to the present and the future. McDougall makes himself a character in the book without distracting from the story. He's our hero, a runner stricken with injuries until he began investigating the Tarahumara, who led him to startling revelations about the way we run and the way they run. McDougall finds that running is a danger if done incorrectly and a salvation if done properly. The stories he tells of the Tarahumara and of the world's greatest mainstream runners all herald a return to the basics: running barefoot or with the cheapest, flattest sole possible; and running not for money or celebrity or victory but for camaraderie and the sheer joy of using our bodies for a basic, essential purpose. "Born to Run" is an examination of sport, an allegory of cross-cultural understanding and a catalogue of philosophies of living. At this point in history, life is not necessarily about the survival of the fittest, or even survival of the fastest. We're past survival now; there's no need to run down prey or outrun a predator. But that's no reason, McDougall says, to stay rooted to the couch.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
To live with ghosts requires solitude.
Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
FOR DAYS, Id been searching Mexicos Sierra Madre for the phantom known as Caballo Blancothe White Horse. Id finally arrived at the end of the trail, in the last place I expected to find himnot deep in the wilderness he was said to haunt, but in the dim lobby of an old hotel on the edge of a dusty desert town. Sí, El Caballo está, the desk clerk said, nodding. Yes, the Horse is here.
For real? After hearing that Id just missed him so many times, in so many bizarre locations, Id begun to suspect that Caballo Blanco was nothing more than a fairy tale, a local Loch Ness mons - truo dreamed up to spook the kids and fool gullible gringos.
Hes always back by five, the clerk added. Its like a ritual. I didnt know whether to hug her in relief or high- five her in triumph. I checked my watch. That meant Id actually lay eyes on the ghost in less than . . . hang on.
But its already after six.
The clerk shrugged. Maybe hes gone away.
I sagged into an ancient sofa. I was filthy, famished, and defeated. I was exhausted, and so were my leads.
Some said Caballo Blanco was a fugitive; others heard he was a boxer whod run off to punish himself after beating a man to death in the ring. No one knew his name, or age, or where he was from. He was like some Old West gunslinger whose only traces were tall tales and a whiff of cigarillo smoke. Descriptions and sightings were all over the map; villagers who lived impossible distances apart swore theyd seen him traveling on foot on the same day, and described him on a scale that swung wildly from funny and simpático to freaky and gigantic.
But in all versions of the Caballo Blanco legend, certain basic details were always the same: Hed come to Mexico years ago and trekked deep into the wild, impenetrable Barrancas del Cobrethe Copper Canyonsto live among the Tarahumara, a near- mythical tribe of Stone Age superathletes. The Tarahumara (pronounced Spanish- style by swallowing the h: Tara- oo- mara) may be the healthiest and most serene people on earth, and the greatest runners of all time.
When it comes to ultradistances, nothing can beat a Tarahumara runnernot a racehorse, not a cheetah, not an Olympic marathoner.
Very few outsiders have ever seen the Tarahumara in action, but amazing stories of their superhuman toughness and tranquillity have drifted out of the canyons for centuries. One explorer swore he saw a Tarahumara catch a deer with his bare hands, chasing the bounding animal until it finally dropped dead from exhaustion, its hoofs falling off. Another adventurer spent ten hours climbing up and over a Copper Canyon mountain by mule; a Tarahumara runner made the same trip in ninety minutes.
Try this, a Tarahumara woman once told an exhausted explorer whod collapsed at the base of a mountain. She handed him a gourd full of a murky liquid. He swallowed a few gulps, and was amazed to feel new energy pulsing in his veins. He got to his feet and scaled the peak like an overcaffeinated Sherpa. The Tarahumara, the explorer would later report, also guarded the recipe to a special energy food that leaves them trim, powerful, and unstoppable: a few mouthfuls packed enough nutritional punch to let them run all day without rest.
But whatever secrets the Tarahumara are hiding, theyve hidden them well. To this day, the Tarahumara live in the side of cliffs higher than a hawks nest in a land few have ever seen. The Barrancas are a lost world in the most remote wilderness in North America, a sort of a shorebound Bermuda Triangle known for swallowing the misfits and desperadoes who stray inside. Lots of bad things can happen down there, and probably will; survive the man- eating jaguars, deadly snakes, and blistering heat, and youve still got to deal with canyon fever, a potentially fatal freak- out brought on by the Barrancas desolate eeriness. The deeper you penetrate into the Barrancas, the more it feels like a crypt sliding shut around you. The walls tighten, shadows spread, phantom echoes whisper; every route out seems to end in sheer rock. Lost prospectors would be gripped by such madness and despair, theyd slash their own throats or hurl themselves off cliffs. Little surprise that few strangers have ever seen the Tarahumaras homelandlet alone the Tarahumara.
But somehow the White Horse had made his way to the depths of the Barrancas. And there, its said, he was adopted by the Tarahumara as a friend and kindred spirit; a ghost among ghosts. Hed certainly mastered two Tarahumara skillsinvisibility and extraordinary endurancebecause even though he was spotted all over the canyons, no one seemed to know where he lived or when he might appear next. If anyone could translate the ancient secrets of the Tarahumara, I was told, it was this lone wanderer of the High Sierras.
Id become so obsessed with finding Caballo Blanco that as I dozed on the hotel sofa, I could even imagine the sound of his voice.
Probably like Yogi Bear ordering burritos at Taco Bell, I mused. A guy like that, a wanderer whod go anywhere but fit in nowhere, must live inside his own head and rarely hear his own voice. Hed make weird jokes and crack himself up. Hed have a booming laugh and atrocious Spanish. Hed be loud and chatty and . . . and . . .
Wait. I was hearing him. 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.
Caballo? I croaked.
The cadaver turned, smiling, and I felt like an idiot. He didnt look wary; he looked confused, as any tourist would when confronted by a deranged man on a sofa suddenly hollering Horse!
This wasnt Caballo. There was no Caballo. The whole thing was a hoax, and Id fallen for it.
Then the cadaver spoke. You know me?
Man! I exploded, scrambling to my feet. Am I glad to see you!
The smile vanished. The cadavers eyes darted toward the door, making it clear that in another second, he would as well.
It all began with a simple question that no one in the world could answer.
That five-word puzzle led me to a photo of a very fast man in a very short skirt, and from there it only got stranger. Soon, I was dealing with a murder, drug guerrillas and a one-armed man with a cream-cheese cup strapped to his head. I met a beautiful, blonde forest ranger who slipped out of her clothes and found salvation by running naked in the Idaho forests, and a young surf babe in pigtails who ran straight toward her death in the desert. A talented young runner would die. Two others would barely escape with their lives.
I kept looking, and stumbled across the Barefoot Batman ... Naked Guy Kalahari Bushmen ... the Toenail Amputee... a cult devoted to distance running and sex parties ... the Wild Man of the Blue Ridge Mountains ... and ultimately, the ancient tribe of the Tarahumara and their shadowy disciple, Caballo Blanco.
In the end, I got my answer, but only after I found myself in the middle of the greatest race the world would never see: the Ultimate Fighting Competition of footraces, an underground showdown pitting some of the best ultra-distance runners of our time against the best ultrarunners of all time, in a 50-mile race on hidden trails only Tarahumara feet had ever touched. Id be startled to discover that the ancient saying of the Tao Te Ching The best runner leaves no trace wasnt some gossamer koan, but real, concrete, how-to, training advice.
And all because in January, 2001, I asked my doctor this:
How come my foot hurts?
Id gone to see one of the top sports-medicine specialists in the country because an invisible ice-pick was driving straight up through the sole of my foot. The week before, Id been out for an easy, three-mile jog on a snowy farm road when I suddenly whinnied in pain, grabbing my right foot and screaming curses as I toppled over in the snow. When I got a grip on myself, I checked to see how badly I was bleeding. I must have impaled my foot on a sharp rock, I figured, or an old nail wedged in the ice. But there wasnt a drop of blood, or even a hole in my shoe.
Running is your problem, Dr. Joe Torg confirmed when I limped into his Philadelphia examining room a few days later. He should know; Dr. Torg had not only helped create the entire field of sports medicine, but he also co-authored The Running Athlete, the definitive radiographic analysis of every conceivable running injury. He ran me through an X-Ray and watched me hobble around, then determined Id aggravated my cuboid, a cluster of bones parallel to the arch which I hadnt even known existed until it re-engineered itself into an internal Taser.
But Im barely running at all, I said. Im doing, like, two or three miles every other day. And not even on asphalt. Mostly dirt roads.
Didnt matter. The human body is not designed for that kind of abuse, Dr. Torg replied.
But why? Antelope dont get shin splints. Wolves dont ice-pack their knees. I doubt that 80% o...
From AudioFile
Think 26.2 miles is a long run? Not even close. McDougall's book traces the spirit of "ultra-runners," the world's greatest distance runners, whose runs take them on personal and physical journeys much more demanding than mere marathons. Focusing on a small, quiet tribe of Mexicans and a handful of assorted Americans, the book explores the question of why people run. Narrator Fred Sanders keeps the pace and maintains a steady enthusiasm as he tells of runners' personalities, diets, and team-oriented competitiveness. Like a well-conditioned runner, nothing in the book is wasted--even parts about the genesis and science of running are fascinating. Sanders never tires while describing humans' innate ability to run. Non-runners will gain an insight from this compelling read, runners will love it, and ultra-runners? Well, they live it. M.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/product-description/0307279189/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Geen opmerkingen :
Een reactie posten