Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall is an extremely popular book lately. That being the case, I picked it up with low expectations, thinking it was overhyped. What I found, to my surprise, is that the book does live up to all the hype, and I feel that I learned a lot from it.
The book did no less than change my outlook on running equipment, on running long distance, and on humanity's evolutionary past. First, on running equipment, the idea that our shoes and high tech insoles are responsible for many running injuries explained a lot of what I myself experienced as a runner and why I have grown increasingly more comfortable with barefoot and less tech-intensive running.
Second, the descriptions of the Tarahumara and ultra-marathoning did a good job of jolting me out of my neat reality in which I don't particularly love my 5 mile runs. To read about people who love to run and who do run 100 mile races, well that puts things in perspective. I went for a run after completing the book and doubled my usual distance, and even enjoyed myself! So in that sense, the book was inspirational.
Finally - and a large part of the inspiration - was the theory the author discusses that we evolved as persistence hunters. Persistence hunters hunt by chasing an animal until it is so exhausted that it collapses, at which point the hunters proceed to eviscerate said animal. I was only slightly aware of this theory and if it is in fact how we evolved, it explains why we need to keep distance sports in our lives to remain healthy. Just that notion, that we evolved as distance runners (distance hunters really) and are genetically still distance athletes, changed my outlook on distance exercise, and I will continue to explore this theory for a while.
So overall I feel that I learned a lot from this book, which is a nice feeling to finish a book with. I recommend it highly, and it's a good conversation piece! Just the other day I was at a cookout with friends and we spent a good amount of time talking about what we learned from Born to Run, our favorite running shoes, and our barefoot running experiences. More on that later!
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
