I finished "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall over the weekend. For the most part, the book held my interest throughout. The book tells the story of the Tarahumara Indians, a tribe of super runners who live in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. Living among the tribe is a man knows as "Caballo Blanco (White Horse)." His dream is to put together a race involving the Tarahumara and an eclectic group of American runners. Without giving away too much of the plot, Mr. McDougall does a great job introducing the reader to the characters and how they came to be involved in this most unusual event. The climax of the book comes at the end when "Caballo Blanco's" dream is realized and the race is off and running. He does a great job putting the reader in the minds of the runners. He describes in great detail many of the highs and lows the runners experience during the race.
The story itself is great, but what is causing a stir in the running community is chapter 25, which after introducing you to "Barefoot Ted" in Chapter 24, goes on to talk about the evils of the modern running shoe industry. See, the Tarahumara run in these in flimsy sandals and their runners experience almost no injuries. This leads into a discussion about how since the invention of the modern running shoe, runners have been injured more because modern running shoes alter a runner's gait that is not natural and that the most natural way to run is barefoot.
2 comments:
Our blogs posts this evening are well coordinated... I also spoke of the book, although I didn't do a full review.
I agree with you that the story itself was engaging. I really enjoyed "meeting" all the different ultra-runners.
Glad you enjoyed the book, Ari! Born to Run was my first running book also and I really appreciate the fact that it is a story and not just a bunch of facts and figures. Besides, even when those do come into play, McDougall keeps it interesting and weaves it into story form.
I look forward to the RRT with McDougall!
BW
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