Christopher McDougall's Blog, page 16

After two years of heel pain, Mike Rossi was so desperate he decided to have his plantar fascia surgically severed. Then, he got another idea…

Chris -

Hopefully you get this email. I wanted to thank you for your book as you truly have saved me from surgery and reenergized my running. I have been very active my whole life, wrestling year round (running sprints barefoot during high school) and the Marine Corp (all training done in combat boots that have no cushion), but never was a runner. In 2008, I decided to take up running after my wife ran a marathon and I began training for the Marine Corp marathon in DC (I live about an hour...

10,000-year-old Red Bull

I know why I got such a jolt out of iskiate, the Tarahumara's Stone Age energy brew, when I was down in the Copper Canyons — I was dehydrated and hurting for calories. So was Carl Lumholtz, the great Norwegian explorer, when he explored Tarahumara country in the 1800s and took his first stunned swallows:
"I arrived late one afternoon at a cave where a woman was just making this drink," Lumholtz wrote. "I was very tired and at a loss how to climb the mountain-side to my camp, some 2,000...

"It's all too often that we let our remedies become our maladies"

Angela Raines got a super upclose seat at the Boulder Book Store talk, but it didn't come cheap. "I got to sit cross-legged on the floor," she reports, "inches away from the author's very own, bare and slightly grimey, feet." (I'd gone on a dusty trail run that afternoon in a pair of Barefoot Ted's exquisite "Luna" huaraches. Fantastic performance, little less so for foot spiffiness). But Angela soldiered on, and came away with some truly inspired and beautifully expressed insights. She's...

BTR on "Here on Earth"

Thanks to Wisconsin public radio and the excellent host of "Here on Earth," I got the chance to tell the story behind the story of Born to Run

Does Runner'sWorld.com have a gag order? Or, "McDougall Speaks" — but not on Runnersworld.com

Lisa Jhung, the Shoe and Gear columnist for Runnersworld.com, posted a blog entry on Friday called "McDougall Speaks." It was about a talk I'd given earlier in the week at Boulder Book Store. I was perplexed right from her opening anecdote. Lisa describes someone in front of her struggling up the stairs wearing a Pike's Peak Ascent t-shirt and a pair of Vibram Fivefingers, and she speculates that maybe his "heavy limp" was caused by running 13 miles up the side of a mountain and 13 miles...

Rizzoli & Isles, Episode 7: "Born to Run"

Dr. Maura Isles, showing up for the "Massachusetts Marathon" in a pair of Vibram Fivefingers: "Early humans ran very comfortably without shoes. Research has proven that the barefoot strike pattern is much less stressful."

BTR Barefoot Run, Harlem-Brooklyn, Pt VI: What a Blast.

Thanks to Kris Wood, who somehow managed to shoot this great video while making the entire run, dodging bikes and cabs and crossing two major bridges.

Barefoot Run from Kris wood on Vimeo.

BTR Barefoot Run, Part V: Follow the Sound of the Skins

Tonight, Aug. 11, we'll be greeted in Marcus Garvey Park and serenaded off by none other than M'Bemba, the Mali grand master drummer.

BTR Barefoot Run, Harlem to Brooklyn, Part IV: Suck It Up

It's going to be a toasty out there tomorrow. Water stops are going to be necessary but hit or miss, so make sure to bring a handheld, waistpack or hydration pack, like this or this. We'll stop to refuel along the way, but with a pack of 50-some (and counting) runners, everyone is going to have to look out for themselves.

BTR Barefoot Run, Pt. III: Word Loves Your Dirty Toes.

Word Bookstore announced that everyone who makes the run will be admitted to the reading that night for free, waiving the $25 charge. That's right: your sweat-funk just acquired a dollar value, and for one day only, one store in New York will be shoes-optional. Live it up.