Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher McDougallBrand: Random
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2009-05-05
ISBN: 0307266303
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Book Review: Moderate Interest for Non-Ultra Distance Runners
Summary: 3 Stars
If you are not interested in distance running you will have no interest in this book that revolves around the passion for distance running for some members of an obscure Indian tribe in Mexico. If you are into the Ultra Marathoning scene you will absolutely love this book and it is a must read but if you are a runner who is not very interested in the Ultra scene, this book will be mostly a curiosity but it does propose some interesting theories on trying to stay healthy during your distance training. This part of the book allows me to give it an overall slightly positive recommendation.
The book bounces all over the place leaving the reader wondering if everything will ever be tied together causing non-ultra runners' interest to frequently wane during the book. The author also heavy handedly interjects his obvious leftist political philosophy throughout the book and one wonders if his description of the Tarahumara Indians lifestyle is being molded to fit into the author's John Lennon "Imagine" ideals. Older runners who admired the "tune out, drop out and turn on" phenomenon of the late `60s from a distance (otherwise they would now be ruined, homeless or dead) will get a nostalgic and escapist thrill from the leftist viewpoint of the book.
The author Christopher McDougall is a Baby Boomer jogger from Pennsylvania who writes general endurance training articles for Men's Health Magazine and whose goal is to try to overcome his frequent injuries to be able to train to complete an Ultra Marathon, which is defined as a race longer than the traditional 26.2 mile marathon distance. This book documents his journey, with endless tangents, and the centerpiece of his journey revolves around the Tarahumara Ultra runners and an American hippie dropout who lives in their midst and organizes an Ultra race which is the climax of the book.
The author investigates the Tarahumara of the Copper Canyon area of Mexico to find the secrets of this "hidden tribe of super athletes." The author paints a picture of 1967 Summer of Love idealism being practiced by this "running tribe" that immediately causes the skeptical reader to wonder how much is fact and how much is fiction/folklore/mythology and how much of the author's leftist idealistic views are transposed into the description of the tribe. He says they live communally and "share everything" without the problems of envy, cheating, sloth and stealing. They practice free sex with wild drunken sex and beer orgies without the problems of jealousy, violence, venereal disease, neglected children and rapes. They seem to have "permanent happiness" a condition that has eluded the rest of mankind throughout eternity. When children play games there are no winners and losers in this egalitarian paradise, it is just entertainment. The adults race to be together not to beat each other. They are of course vegetarians. They are of course, egalitarian with zero division of labor between the sexes with men walking around with babies in backpacks like John Lennon did in Central Park with Julian shortly before he abandoned him. They are free of countries, borders and property lines and war except when encroached upon by outsiders, they are free of currency, free of religion, free of capitalism especially Nike and free of "carbon consumption". They have no money "but no one is poor" (unlike America where the tens of millions of poor people "below the official poverty line" have multiple TVs, cars, DVD players, cell phones, air conditioning, free education, free access to emergency rooms and access to so much food a large percentage of them are obese). Never mind the contradictions such as the fact the Indians eat rats so they are not actually vegetarians and they "hunt" and chase down deer but it never says what they do to them when they catch them, ostensibly because it might involve violence. If you want a blueprint of how the Tarahumara live according to McDougal simply read the lyrics of Imagine. Of course, Lennon himself was a total hypocrite living in the lap of massive material luxury acquired through his use of the capitalistic system and he wrote the song while frolicking on his million dollar yacht cruising off the coast of Bermuda on permanent vacation, but like the book constantly does, I digress. We also discover there are corrupted Tarahumara Indians called the Urique who were corrupted by "Catholic Missionaries" who gave them Nike running shoes and shorts and live in areas with paved roads and to no surprise are later discovered to be all cheaters.
There are many obvious questions left unanswered that makes the reader even more skeptical with such basic questions as how many of these Indians are there? After reading 300 pages about them you have no idea if there are 10 of them, 100 of them or 10000 of them. What percentage are corrupted, 1% or 50% or 99%, we have no idea after reading the book. The author implies that they all run and run great distances in 100 plus degree weather up and down massive and rugged mountain ranges and their lives revolve around running but this defies believability. Is it really just a tradition that a small number of them practice? Do they farm or do they simply gather? Do they actually receive some government assistance, i.e. are they on welfare? Do most of the Tarahumara actually only run when they absolutely have to like every culture that ever occupied the earth?
The Indians are said to run miraculous distances and even for days. They have ultra marathon races on whims with no advance planning. They are completely injury free. They run in skirts and despite running on hard rock a lot of the time, run in sandals. The folklore says they even had a 95 year old who ran ultra marathons according to the classic quote "because no one told him he couldn't do it." The NY Times previously wrote a piece on them describing them as "the best distance runners in the world".
Living among the Indians, or more accurately on their periphery is an aging American hippie dropout with leathery sunburned skin and more names than anyone and he is trying to emulate the lifestyle of the uncorrupted version of the Indians. He is known as Mike Hickman, Micah True, White Horse, Invisible and various Spanish versions including Caballo Blanco. The Indians refer to outsiders as "Bearded Devils". As you probably know a common trait among pure blooded Indians is the dearth of body hair. However they seem to at least tolerate him if not respect him. A former low level journeyman semi-pro boxer he dropped out of society after his girlfriend left him for another man and he discovered his true passion was running ultra distances and once ran a 50 mile race in just over 6 hours. He wound up going to the Copper Canyons of Mexico to be near the Tarahumara and to live off the land. Depressingly the loner says he simply plans to lie down and die when he is aged and can't run anymore. As always we later find out he isn't truly living off the land and goes back to Colorado whenever he runs out of money and works as a furniture mover then goes back to Mexico. Hickman and McDougal meet in Mexico and a plan is hatched to stage an ultra marathon on the Tarahumara's turf that also features some outsider American ultra marathoners.
The book then digresses and answers the primary question a competitive distance runner wants to know, which is simply how good they actually are at running. After finding out the answer, this is where the competitive distance runner who considers ultras a fringe curiosity rather than truly a part of the ferociously competitive landscape of elite distance running, begins to lose interest in the book and goes into hang on mode for the rest of the book. In the early to mid `90s, a promoter, who is cast as so unscrupulous to the point of being a cartoon caricature by the author, brought a few Tarahumara to Colorado several years in a row to compete in the Leadville 100 mile ultra race. How did the Indians fare? Well, the centerpiece of these races features a battle between the Tarahumara men and a female ultra runner named Ann Trason who has a marathon personal best of 2:40. One of the men barely was able to beat Trason at the end of the race. To the author this was proof of just how good they are, but to a knowledgeable fan of elite competitive distance running, it is proof that they are not all that good. It is simply a matter of taste. I have nothing against ultras and I think it is great they have the freedom to do what they do and I even respect what they do. The very best distance runners in the world don't bother to compete in ultras and would instantly dominate the sport if they chose to do so. So the Tarahumara at Leadville were up not up against truly elite runners and in fact only one of them just barely beat a female ultra who inherently was not as good as the best male ultras. Legendary distance coach Joe Vigil is quoted in the book as saying "no elite coach of distance runners gives a hoot about ultras."
In yet another tangent, Vigil paradoxically gets interested in the Tarahumara to expand his knowledge of coaching and like any good coach to see if he could learn something new. According to the author, Vigil learned that the Tarahumara seem to love their running more than any other group and that can be one of the key ingredients to ultimate success in competitive distance running.
The next tangent in the book is the most valuable part of the book and why I recommend the book, if just barely. The author does an in depth examination of the theory of footwear minimalism, which is the theory that humans were designed to run barefoot and that running shoes or at least any shoes above the bare minimum cause injury. I personally developed this viewpoint on my own in the early 1980s when it appeared to me that shoes were getting more bells and whistles and more and more expensive and that you didn't need to pay the extra price. The author provides extensive anecdotal evidence and scientific studies to advance his theory and the reader should seriously ponder this theory. He says the hippie Mike Hickman ditched his running shoes for sandals and his injury woes disappeared. Another bizarre character who goes by the moniker Barefoot Ted runs thousands of miles a year barefoot. He does cover his feet with a thin rubber glove like material called Five Finger Deck Shoes used by sailboat enthusiasts to minimize cuts. This is an interesting thing because it is the risk of cuts that generally precludes serious barefoot training.
The author says that problem with running shoes is that they allow you to run with unnaturally poor form which eventually leads to overuse injuries. If you run barefoot on grass you will run differently than with shoes, and that different way is actually the true natural way your feet were designed to run. Therefore the more bells and whistles (and expensive) a shoe gets, the worse it is and the more injuries it will cause. He quotes Arthur Lydiard as saying achilles injuries were non-existent until modern shoes came out. He says Vin Lananna has his athletes run barefoot one day a week to avoid injury. He quotes a Swiss study of over 4000 runners that concluded the following generally accepted causes of injury actually did not cause any injuries including - lack of stretching, running on hard surfaces, being too heavy, going too fast, injury history, etc. The only direct link to injury was this: The more expensive the shoe, the more likely you are to be injured. I found this interesting because I personally wear a 35 dollar pair of Saucony Cohesion shoes with zero frills. He quotes a University of Hawaii study that has similar conclusions and in fact says the more you stretch, the more likely you are to get injured. Another study concludes that 65-80% of all distance runners are forced to take time off from running due to injury every year and again over designed shoes are the culprit.
The author and quoted studies say the more cushioning the shoe has and the softer the surfaces you run on causes the runner to unconsciously to push down harder in search of stability causing heavier joint impact and possible injury. According to the author if you are wearing a heavily cushioned expensive shoe and running on a soft trail you will have much higher impact forces on your joints than someone running barefoot on a paved surface because the later is running lightly and naturally. He goes on to say that worn shoes are safer than new shoes. I would agree with that with one caveat, that is if wear is in one spot you can have a serious imbalance leading to achilles problems.
The author then goes off on the obligatory anti-Nike rant. What leftist worth his salt is going to neglect attacking Nike? He attacks Bill Bowerman legendary Oregon Coach and Nike co-founder with the claim that he never actually ran which I must presume is true. I assumed Bowerman ran for legendary Oregon coach Bill Haywood, the first of the 3 Bills. He says Lydiard invented jogging when he created the Lydiard Auckland joggers club which is detailed in Lydard's own books that consisted of old men, many of whom were heart attack victims, who reinvigorated their lives through jogging. McDougall says Bowerman stole this idea and wrote his best selling "Jogging" book. He goes on to imply that Nike products hurt people and the company knows/knew that and continued to do it anyway. Lefties will eat up "the evil big corporation" tangent of the book. To me Nike is just another corporation (with 60% of working adults owning a stake in it whether they know it or not), that is neither a good nor evil entity whose mission is to maximize profits by selling products that people want at a price people are willing to pay. I think it is great that they have that freedom and that consumers have the freedom to buy or not buy their products. I personally have decided that Nike's products are inferior and overpriced so I choose to not buy them. Ironically, we find late in the book that author "has to" wear Nikes for the climatic race.
From here the author strays off into very shaky ground in an attempt to sell the title of the book "Born to Run." The theory is that humans are designed and naturally evolved to be running great distances daily. He enlists a little known anthropologist named Dr. Bramble. Since one of my personal hobbies is anthropology and the evolution of man, I expected to find this part of the book very interesting. Unfortunately, I found this whole section to be a classic case of "Postmodern Science" and far removed from Enlightenism and rational based scientific discovery. All too often Post Modernists will take a political cause or activist social agenda and create a so called scientific theory to forward their cause using selective cherry picked science and data, hyperbole or scare tactics, data out of context and as we are now seeing with the scandal in England and NASA- outright lies and falsification of data, to advance their political cause.
I found many long reaches, incorrect and contradictory pieces of "evidence" in this section of the book. For instance he tries to advance the theory that our Homo Sapiens cousins the Neanderthal were smarter than us because they had equal or possibly larger brain size. Any biologist will point out that the way a brain functions is more important than sheer size and any anthropologist will point out that the most striking aspect of Neanderthal existence was their total lack of scientific or cultural progress over the 300,000 years of their existence and they obviously lacked the critical thinking ability of homo sapiens which strongly contributed to their demise. The doctor talks of Neanderthal's lack of a division of labor among the sexes as a positive for them, but any anthropological paper will point out the division of labor among the sexes was a major contributing factor that allowed homo sapiens to make great advances. He also contradicts himself saying correctly that hominid's brains greatly advanced in size and ability when they got access to meat, but then goes on to say that vegetarianism is a superior and "natural".
Furthermore the doctor concludes that a 64 year old is just as physically capable as a man in his prime, provided he continues to work out. Us students of sport know this is completely untrue. We know that after age 35 and certainly by age 40 a rapid decline begins even if great effort is put forth to stem the decline. In fact, based on analysis of records, a 40 year old is about as capable of a 16 year old, but far below the prime 20s and early 30s. The doctor goes on to push the completely discredited theory that women can be equal to men in physical feats. The best man is always far superior to the best women and average man is far superior to the average women in physical feats. It did not take prehistoric man long to figure this out and hence the division of labor with men hunting and women gathering. He also adds a egalitarian reach that humans are "more feminine" than other animals based on a smaller difference in size between the sexes than in some other species.
He talks about the ancient practice of running animals to exhaustion as a means of hunting. While that probably took place in some eras in some places, although the doctor himself says there can be no hard evidence to back it up, the ever ingenious man quickly discovered it was easier to scavenge, break open bones to eat marrow that other predators couldn't get to and later to kill prey by traps, trickery, spears, blunt objects and after 30,000 BC, the bow and arrow. In the obscure instances that man ran prey to exhaustive death, it was not because man was "born to run" it was because that is all some people in some places knew at that time.
The doctor goes on to say running is a key part of what humans are. If you do even a casual study of anthropology, you will quickly find this to be not true. Humans are primarily characterized by physical weakness in comparison to the animal kingdom. Like all bipeds we are very slow runners compared to quadrupeds, we are very weak for our size, we have poor eyesight, poor sense of smell, poor hearing, a weak protective skull compared to similar sized animals and an extremely fragile outer layer of skin with no fur that is easily cut, easily damaged by sun and cold and our young take an extraordinarily long time to reach self-sustaining maturity.
According to anthropologists 3 traits allowed man to establish dominion over the world, with the first 2 far more important than the third. The obvious is the vastly superior brain. Combined with the power of the brain is the unique hands that have vastly superior dexterity that allow the brain's ideas to be turned into reality. All other primates lack this dexterity. Their palms are long and their thumbs are short which gives them superior grip strength for climbing but precludes any significant dexterity. The final trait is human endurance, aided by the ability to sweat, which is superior to all land animals save the horse. This endurance allowed humans to not run long distances (although they certainly can) to which there is little short term benefit, but to work hard for most of the day and in emergencies work 24 hours or more if necessary while most animals, especially other predators, must spend most of the day resting and sleeping. Humans are born to create, build, work, control, harvest, conquer and about 100 other things before they were "Born to Run". Of course, I do keep in mind he is trying to sell a book, just as Nike is trying to sell their products.
Finally comes the climactic race in the Copper Cannons featuring the Tarahumara, the corrupted Urique Tarahumara, Scott Jurak - who is described by the author as the best Ultra runner in the world at the time of this race, the aforementioned Barefoot Ted, two young hard partying Virginia beach bum free spirited college dropout lovers whom the author says are elite Ultra runners, Hickman and the author. Interestingly, the uncorrupted Tarahumara eat a pre-race meal full of meat despite their description as vegetarians. The race is supposedly 50 miles up and down jungle/mountain trails in intense heat although there is no realistic way Hickman could have actually measured the course. The Urique Tarahumara, who were corrupted by Catholic Missionaries and wear Nike shoes and shorts and run on paved roads, bolt to the lead and despite being way ahead of the field and race director Hickman, it is somehow obvious to Hickman that they have cheated by cutting the course and are disqualified. I won't give away the rest of the race, but the end result has a feel of a staged ending but I don't know for sure.
Overall, I moderately recommend the book for its exploration of the Indian Tribe and the Ultra Scene in general and for the examination of the concept of running shoe minimalism.
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Summary of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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 world?s 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 Mexico?s 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.
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 world?s 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 Mexico?s 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 Mexico?s 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 I?d been taught about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirth?it?s 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 they?re having a blast. They remember what it?s like to love running, and it lets them blaze through the canyons like dolphins rocketing through waves. For them, running isn?t work. It isn?t a punishment for eating. It?s 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 middle?behold, the Running Man.
The Tarahumara have a saying: ?Children run before they can walk.? Watch any four-year-old?they do everything at full speed, and it?s all about fun. That?s 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 I?d 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 ultramarathon?a race organized by the mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some of America?s top ultrarunners?while researching and writing this book. What was your training like?
CM: It really started as kind of a dare. Just by chance, I?d met an adventure-sports coach from Jackson Hole, Wyoming named Eric Orton. Eric?s 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 skiing?s smooth propulsion to mountain biking. What he?s looking for are basic engineering principles, because he?s convinced that the next big leap forward in fitness won?t 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 they?ll have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if they?re caught in a storm. They never even know how long a race will be until they step up to the starting line?the 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. He?d throw something new at me every day?hopping drills, lunges, mile intervals?and lots and lots of hills. There was no such thing, really, as long, slow distance?he?d have me mix lots of hill repeats and short bursts of speed into every mega-long run.
I didn?t 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: You?re a six-foot four-inches tall, 200-plus pound guy?not anyone?s typical vision of a distance runner, yet you?ve 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, I?m a big?un. But isn?t it sad that?s even a reasonable question? I bought into that bull for a loooong time. Why wouldn?t I? I was constantly being told by people who should know better that ?some bodies aren?t designed for running.? One of the best sports medicine physicians in the country told me exactly that?that 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 didn?t ALL evolve to run away from saber-toothed tigers.? Meaning, what? That anyone who isn?t sleek as a Kenyan marathoner should be extinct? It?s such illogical blather?all kinds of body types exist today, so obviously they DID evolve to move quickly on their feet. It?s 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, what?s 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 America?s 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 and?believe it or not?good looking. I couldn?t 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. They?re 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 here?s 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 don?t really stress about times. They?re out to enjoy the run and finish strong, not shave a few inconsequential seconds off a personal best. And that?s the best way to transition up to big mileage races: as coach Eric told me, ?If it feels like work, you?re working too hard.?
Q: You write that distance running is the great equalizer of age and gender. Can you explain?
CM: Okay, I?ll 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 I?ve asked has ever come close. It?s in the book, so I won?t give it away, but I guarantee when you hear the answer, you?ll 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 how?s that possible? According to a new body of research, it?s because humans are the greatest distance runners on earth. We may not be fast, but we?re born with such remarkable natural endurance that humans are fully capable of outrunning horses, cheetahs and antelopes. That?s 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 eat?salad 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 you?re on the lam. If you?ve got to be ready to pick up and haul butt at a moment?s notice, you?re not going to be loading up on gut-busting meals. I thought I?d 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. She?s the one who gave me the idea of having salad for breakfast, and it?s 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, we?re 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 it?s 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 there?s 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)
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Moss Brown's Runner's Logby Myles Schneider
Acropolis Books Inc; Published: 1985-02; Paperback; Book
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The Complete Runner's Day-by-Day Log and Calendar 2004by John Jerome
Random House; Published: 2003-07-29; Calendar; Book
Best price: $1.95
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Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving--and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanityby Dimity McDowell, Sarah Bowen Shea
Andrews McMeel Publishing; Published: 2010-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.09
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Wired to Run: The Runaholics Anonymous Guide to Living with Running Addictionby Scoop Skupien
Andrews McMeel Publishing; Published: 2006-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.54
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Running with Jesus: from addictions to devotionby W. Bennett
iUniverse, Inc.; Published: 2005-07-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.46
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Run for Your Life: A Book for Beginning Women Runnersby Deborah Reber
Backinprint.com; Published: 2005-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.36
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Running with Jesus: from addictions to devotionby W. Bennett
iUniverse, Inc.; Published: 2005-07-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.66
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To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Enduranceby Kirk Johnson
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2002-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $216.48
The Runner's Training Diary: For Fitness Runners and Competitive Racersby Bob Glover, Shelly-lynn Florence Glover
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-06-01; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $13.50
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The Runner's Literary Companion: Great Stories and Poems About RunningPenguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.27
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The Accessible Hegelby Michael Allen Fox
Humanity Books; Published: 2005-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.38
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Going Long: Legends, Oddballs, Comebacks & Adventuresby Editors of Runner's World
Rodale Books; Published: 2010-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.16
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Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathonsby Bryon Powell
Breakaway Books; Published: 2011-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.76
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Running on Empty: An Ultramarathoner's Story of Love, Loss, and a Record-Setting Run Across Americaby Marshall Ulrich
Avery; Published: 2011-04-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.92
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Once a Runner: A Novelby John L Parker
Scribner; Published: 2009-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.00
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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seenby Christopher McDougall
Random House Audio; Published: 2010-12-28; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $11.45
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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Vintage)by Christopher McDougall
Vintage; Published: 2011-03-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
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Barefoot Running Step by Step: Barefoot Ken Bob, the Guru of Shoeless Running, Shares His Personal Technique for Running with More Speed, Less Impact, Fewer Injuries and More Funby Roy M. Wallack, Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton
Fair Winds Press; Published: 2011-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.22
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The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Lifeby Amby Burfoot
Skyhorse Publishing; Published: 2007-11-17; Turtleback; Book
Best price: $5.74
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Natural Running: The Simple Path to Stronger, Healthier Runningby Danny Abshire
Velo Press; Published: 2010-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.50
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