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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Christopher McDougall

4.29 · Rating details · 151,187 ratings · 13,245 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 287 pages

Published May 5th 2009 by Knopf (first published April 23rd 2009)

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Sep 30, 2009 Lena rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir

Let me begin this review by saying that I am not, and never have been, a runner. Despite that fact, I was surprisingly fascinated by Chrisopher McDougall's account of how his desire to run without pain started him on a quest that led him both deep into Mexico's remote Copper Canyons and human evolutionary past.

Born to Run begins as an adventure story. While trying to figure out how to get his own foot to stop hurting, he saw an article about a tribe of Mexican Indians called the Tarahumara. ...more

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Dec 06, 2009 Dougal rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I realise I'm in minority here but I really didn't enjoy this book at all. As a result of all the rave reviews I bought a copy for both myself and a friend - we were both hugely disappointed.

The author, Christopher McDougall, is an American magazine correspondent and this perhaps goes someway to explain a lot of what I didn't like about the book. To begin with, it is written in a totally 'omniscient' manner, ie McDougall can see inside everyone's head. This is excessive, continuous, and extends ...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Lea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2011, acquired-2011, reviews, favorites

So I picked this book up, thinking it would be a cool story about this lost tribe of distance runners -- which it was -- but I got soooo much more than I bargained for.

Yes, I did learn about the Tarahumara tribe, but I also learned about the biomechanics of running and how shoe manufacturers disregard runner safety in preference of turning a profit, ultramarathons and the hardcore runners who participate in them, the lawless culture of Copper Canyon, the nearly lost techniques of persistence ...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Aaron rated it liked it

With its excessive hyperbole, convenient omissions, misleading statistics, logical inconsistencies and plain old errors, I stopped thinking about this book as actual journalism after fifty pages. Trying to read it as a novel wasn't that satisfying either because the book reads like several magazine pieces glued together rather than one continuous work. The personality profiles of Jenn and Billy and the screed against running shoes felt particularly extraneous. However, the book has a fun core of ...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, sports

Truly, I cannot recall the last time I read a book that I loved as much as this.

Should you think this book is for serious runners alone, please think again. I am not by any means a runner. I ran track in high school, but the runs I did were short, sweet, sprints. After high school, I had a difficult time finding 200 yard dashes to race in, so I did a few 5k's... I didn't love them much at all. There was no way I was going to win a 5k, not ever. The distance just sucked. (In retrospect, some Truly, I cannot recall the last time I read a book that I loved as much as this.

Should you think this book is for serious runners alone, please think again. I am not by any means a runner. I ran track in high school, but the runs I did were short, sweet, sprints. After high school, I had a difficult time finding 200 yard dashes to race in, so I did a few 5k's... I didn't love them much at all. There was no way I was going to win a 5k, not ever. The distance just sucked. (In retrospect, some training may have helped.) I looked at most distance runners as mentally ill - something was wrong with those people. They were running from something, I decided, maybe from being fat, or being sad, maybe running from addictions or desires. Nuts. All of them. (Maybe I was just jealous of their slow twitch muscle fibers.) Most of the time I found the races to be miserable, and looking at most of the runners, it seemed they did too. Grimaces, frowns, bloody nipples, knee braces... yeah, FUN!

This book jogged my memory of those few times I did find running to be fun. One of those times was during a 5K called "Hair of the Frog", put on by a local brewery. It was early spring, it was cold, raining ice, There was thunder and lightning. I'm not sure if it was oxygen deprivation, or perhaps that amazing runner's high, but midway through the race, I was in nirvana. The trees around me looked beautiful encased in ice. I felt.... amazing. Alive. Primal. It did not matter that I was not going to win this race. (In fact, this race even had an award for finishing DFL, Dead F-ing Last.) It was then that I got it. I understood why some people really love to run. Had it not been for the pints of beer waiting at the finish line, I'm pretty sure I would have rerun the course with glee. Over time, I forgot about that sensation, busy with life, I rarely ran. I remember now.

Author Christopher McDougall writes about and participates in extreme adventure sports. He struggles with running injuries. The doctors suggest shots, orthotics, and offer the advice, "if it hurts, stop doing it.".

While in Mexico on an assignment, McDougall discovers the Tarahumara, an anthropological gem - a superhuman species, hidden deep in the formidable Sierra Madres. These people run extreme distances, and they run into old age, when the rest of the world resigns to rocking chairs. McDougall sets out to find these people, to discover how they run without injury, how they continue to run into old age. In the process, meets a man, Caballo Blanco, who wants to set up a race between these superhumans and the elite ultra runners of the United States.

There is so much more to this book than people running. This book talks about culture, society, obsession, science.

One of the most compelling parts of the book - the evidence presented that we are indeed born to run. One scientist points to the nuchal ligament on the back of our skulls, which fast moving animals have to keep the head in place while running. The topic of persistence hunting comes in to support the point and it is utterly fascinating. Running on two legs may not make us as fast as the quadripeds, but it does allow us to breathe more efficiently. And all these fabulous sweat glands we have? We can run longer without overheating, unlike the mammals not as well equipped with such a cooling system. we may not be fast enough to run down a deer in minutes, but after enduring for several miles, we can overtake the deer as it drops from overheating and exhaustion.

The cast of characters is simply amazing. I have already mentioned my thought that serious runners are a bit off in the head. The group of ultrarunners mentioned in the book may make the case for me. We meet Jenn and Billy, two surfer kids turned ultrarunners, that party all night to the point of puking, and get a few hours of sleep (by passing out) and rise, ready to go for a VERY long run. Jack Kirk, an elderly trail runner, is mentioned briefly, but was so fascinating I had to google him. ( http://runtrails.blogspot.com/2007/02... ) There's Barefoot Ted, running trails sans shoes (or if his feet need protection, he uses Vibram Five Fingers). And the mastermind behind the race, Caballo Blanco, a gringo who indeed was running from something.

This story is so, SO worth reading.
The only thing that could have improved the book... pictures.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a trail calling me to run.

Maybe I am a runner after all. ...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Jeanette rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction, did-not-work-for-me, cultural-and-social-commentary, travel-adventure

Painful as it was, I stayed with this until slightly past the halfway mark. I kept hoping I might learn more about the Tarahumara people, but it was not to be. There's very little about the Tarahumara, and almost everything about a bunch of self-absorbed, obsessive long-distance runners. I have no patience with extreme athletes. They need to strive for some balance in their lives. The sport is not everything. I also got tired of the "gee golly wow ain't it all just lipsmackingly wild and ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Diane rated it really liked it

Shelves: mexico, nonfiction, outdoors, inspirational, sports

You don't stop running because you get old; you get old because you stop running.

After hearing my running friends rave about this book for years, I finally got around to reading it. And now I owe them an apology, because I had gotten so sick of being preached at about chia seeds and running barefoot and vegetarianism and ultramarathons that I have been quietly rolling my eyes whenever anyone mentioned this friggin book.

But once I got into the story, all of my eye rolls stopped. Sure, there were You don't stop running because you get old; you get old because you stop running.

After hearing my running friends rave about this book for years, I finally got around to reading it. And now I owe them an apology, because I had gotten so sick of being preached at about chia seeds and running barefoot and vegetarianism and ultramarathons that I have been quietly rolling my eyes whenever anyone mentioned this friggin book.

But once I got into the story, all of my eye rolls stopped. Sure, there were a few groans about McDougall's punchy, magazine-writing style that doesn't always translate well to book form, but overall, this was an engrossing read. It covers a motley cast of outdoorsy characters from America and Mexico, including the elite runners of the elusive Tarahumara Indian tribe, several incredible foot races, research on running and training methods, and there is even a captivating digression into how the Bushmen of the Kalahari go hunting.

At its heart, the story is about human endurance, compassion for others, and the theory that our bodies were "born to run." There is a thoughtful chapter on the evolution of homo sapiens from other mammals, and the ways in which the human form is designed to be able to cover an incredible amount of distance.

"Know why people run marathons? Because running is rooted in our collective imagination, and our imagination is rooted in running. Language, art, science; space shuttles, Starry Night, intravascular surgery; they all had their roots in our ability to run. Running was the superpower that made us human -- which means it's a superpower all humans possess."

As mentioned, there are also sections on the nutritional power of chia seeds, vegetarianism, and a training theory that runners should spend more time barefoot to build up their strength. I won't lecture you about any of that as I had found it exhausting when others preached to me (there is a line between enthusiasm and evangelism), but I did find the information interesting and will take it under advisement.

Along the way, McDougall shares his own stories of running injuries and how he found different trainers to teach him ways to run more efficiently and with more joy. Yes, joy.

"How do you flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were? Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed all, and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbors' backyards ... That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. 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 ... Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else."

The narrative builds to an amazing foot race in the blazing hot Copper Canyons of Mexico, with some top American athletes competing against a group of Tarahumara runners. Friends, I would be lying if I said I made it through that incredible story without getting choked up by the beauty of what happened that day. I could share quotes, but I think you need to read it in context and experience the grit and grace and humanity for yourself.

This book was so inspiring that I vowed to make an effort to go running more often. And I shall run with joy and compassion in my heart. ...more

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May 03, 2012 Nicholas Sparks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nicholas-recommends

This has to be one of my favorite books of the last few years. It's non-fiction, but it reads like a thrilling adventure, complete with a high-octane conclusion, all with a bit of science thrown in. It's a fantastic look at the sport of ultra-distance running, but trust me when I say that once you start reading, it's impossible to put down.

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Sep 26, 2015 David rated it it was amazing

Recommended to David by: Afiq Asyran

Shelves: nonfiction, audiobook

While I am not a runner, I found this book to be quite engaging. I can recommend it to anyone interested in running, indigenous peoples, or wacky characters!

This book is about long-distance races over rugged, desert terrain. It is about a hidden tribe, the Tarahumara, who live in the Copper Canyone area of the Sierra Madre, a remote, desert region in Mexico. The tribe is very wary of strangers. They speak their own native language. They live in a rugged, wild country that takes days to reach. While I am not a runner, I found this book to be quite engaging. I can recommend it to anyone interested in running, indigenous peoples, or wacky characters!

This book is about long-distance races over rugged, desert terrain. It is about a hidden tribe, the Tarahumara, who live in the Copper Canyone area of the Sierra Madre, a remote, desert region in Mexico. The tribe is very wary of strangers. They speak their own native language. They live in a rugged, wild country that takes days to reach. Just getting there is dangerous, as it involves evading drug runners and rugged, roadless desert terrain.

It is a wonder that the tribe flourishes, because just getting from one village to another requires enormous athleticism and stamina. But this seems to be no problem for the Tarahumara, many of whom are superathletes. They frequently run enormous distances, over 100 miles, without a problem. They don't wear running shoes; they usually wear homemade sandals made of a thin strip of rubber.

The main story is about a 50-mile race through Copper Canyon in a heat-scorching sun. Many colorful characters compete in the race. Their attitudes toward life and toward running are fun and often funny. I cannot imagine how some of them could have made it out of the desert alive at all, let alone made it across the finish line.

The most surprising part of the book is the description of how high-end running shoes tend to slow runners down and make runners twice as prone to injuries as low-end shoes. Imagine their surprise when Nike employees visited a college track team, and saw that they were practicing barefoot. Running barefoot is less conducive to injuries that top-of-the-line running shoes!

The antics of a couple of the characters in the book started to make me feel like this was just a sophomoric book about happy-go-lucky college kids. But there was enough interest in the book to keep me engaged to the very last page.

I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook version. Fred Sanders is a very good reader, and his accents sounded realistic and help propel the story forward. ...more

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Nov 24, 2018 Tanja Berg rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Nearly five years ago I started walking. As I got stronger, I progressed to running. Then came the winter of 2015-2016 when I had a cough that would not let up and consecutive colds. Plus I had a young dog. I went back to walking. Although my hikes were long, it wasn't quite the same and I started to regain the weight I had lost. Two months ago, I decided that enough was enough. If I wanted to avoid buying bigger clothes I would have to do something. Either run and see if that helps, or if that Nearly five years ago I started walking. As I got stronger, I progressed to running. Then came the winter of 2015-2016 when I had a cough that would not let up and consecutive colds. Plus I had a young dog. I went back to walking. Although my hikes were long, it wasn't quite the same and I started to regain the weight I had lost. Two months ago, I decided that enough was enough. If I wanted to avoid buying bigger clothes I would have to do something. Either run and see if that helps, or if that hadn't helped by Christmas, start going to the gym. Horror of horrors for an outdoors person such as myself.

I exchanged my walks for interval runs and the effect was immediate. Within two weeks I could button all my blouses again and the black pants I couldn't button I had to wear a belt for. That was really as far as my weight loss scheme went, although I keep an eye on it still. What I discovered too was that rather than taking my usual routes faster, I would simply be out for my usual hour, hour and half - difference being that I covered a lot more ground. I found a world beyond my usual routes. I went up new trails in the woods I knew well. I went further. I discovered that after about ten kilometers, a joy surfaces that I didn't know I could feel. My weekend trail runs are now twenty km - a day. Not because it makes me thin, but because it makes me happy.

It's the lull of the rythm while keeping an eye on roots and stones. It's the falling leaves, the landscape, the lakes. Today I came to a lake that had just frozen and frost had blown across the newly formed ice. The trees and moss and grass were white from frost. It was so incredibly beautiful that I teared up with gratitude for being able to be there and see it.

This book "Born to run" is a fantastic story that confirms what I have discovered. We are, indeed, born to run long distances. It's a story about crazy ultra runners, for whom marathons are too short - they go much further. What they have found is a joy of running.

There is also this funny chapter about how shoes have caused so much damage to us. It is better to run with cheap shoes that aren't padded because then the running style - landing on your padded forefoot - is easy on the body. Landing on your heels causes all kinds of problems, whether you are running with air padded shoes or not.

I loved this book because it was an affirmation of what I have found on my cross country trails: happiness. ...more

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May 22, 2018 Sharon rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

What a weird, wonderful (true!) story.

Upon finishing this, I spent the better part of the day on YouTube, looking for any additional information I could find on the Tarahumara tribe, chia seeds, Caballo Blanco, Scott Jurek, Ann Trason, the Leadville Trail Race, running barefoot, persistence hunting, even the author Christopher McDougall. It was everything I didn't know I needed to know about ultra-running, why we run, and the legends in the sport. The novel takes the reader on a wild and random ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Megan Baxter rated it liked it

Born To Run was okay. It's not great, it's not stellar, it's not maddening. It's okay. The writing is serviceable. The research is a little spotty, but okay for the type of book this is. It made me want to try running, just a little. That's definitely saying something.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

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Mar 15, 2016 Suanne Laqueur rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-five-stars

I am not a runner. I hate to run. I would rather die than run. I have zero interest in ever becoming a runner. Yet I've read this book three times. It's about so much more than running. It's interesting as hell, funny as fuck, engrossing, fascinating... I will read it again. You could say I will go running back to it. Many times.

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Apr 14, 2010 Dan rated it liked it

Shelves: running

A compelling read, brilliant story and fascinating subject matter, but somehow falls short of being a great book.

I'm not sure where it goes wrong exactly, but for me it might have been the number of characters which I struggled to keep track of, the slightly preachy tone of the anti-shoe chapters (persuasive though they are) or the negative coverage of apparently less worthy ultra runners who dared to accept sponsorship or promote their own books. None of these, or other faults, completely spoil ...more

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Jan 02, 2012 La Petite Américaine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: auto-bios-etc, kicked_ass

"Just move your legs. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You're denying who you are." --Born to Run.

This book is really, really simple. If you're not a runner, the book will entertain you like the best of any of Krakauer's stories. If you do run, it will change your life. Actually, if you don't run and this book doesn't change your life, something is wrong with you.

The "I can't run because of my knee/back/feet/Achilles tendons/whatever ...more

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Nov 23, 2010 Mike rated it did not like it

Oh man, did this book stink. In the words of Eric Cartman, "Goddamn hippies!" This book was a weird mixup of topics: Mexican-Indian runners, American ultrarunners, humans evolution is based on running, running shoes are bad for you, salad for breakfast is the way to go, Nike is evil, everything in life would be better if we all ran way more, etc... You get the idea. I think I would have liked this book if it had been an history of the Mexican tribal runners. Instead McDougall makes an effort to ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Kwesi 章英狮 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, owned, christopher-mcdougall

I'm not born to be a runner, but God given us something to run. Since elementary or let me say since the day I was born, I'm not really into running. I'm weak physically but I can do things simple and I can play table tennis, more than that, I'm like a weakling of our generation. I always ask myself, what does it feels to be running in a field or grass and flowers or in a place where orange sand, cactus and animals that spits poison can be found? Reading books was like running, it was like ...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Andy Miller rated it it was amazing

My only complaint was that the book was too short, or that it was so interesting and well written that I read it too fast or that I liked the characters so much that I wanted to go out for a run and have a beer with them

Book is written by a runner whose legs are beat up and told he shouldn't run anymore. He researchs alternatives and learns about the Tahahumara Indians who live in the remote and inaccessible copper canyon in Mexico.

One of my favorite chapters was about the year a few of the ...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Laura Avellaneda-Cruz rated it really liked it

Written in 2015:

I read and wrote the review below in 2012. Since then, I've given it some more thought and had a few years now of running in huaraches (when trail conditions permit). My personal, anecdotal experience is that huaraches do make my recurrent ankle pain way less of a problem, and it just feels good. But I wear trails shoes when the trails have lots of little rocks.

Also, I am still --and now, more -- annoyed at how little depth we got on the individual people of the Rarámuri, and Written in 2015:

I read and wrote the review below in 2012. Since then, I've given it some more thought and had a few years now of running in huaraches (when trail conditions permit). My personal, anecdotal experience is that huaraches do make my recurrent ankle pain way less of a problem, and it just feels good. But I wear trails shoes when the trails have lots of little rocks.

Also, I am still --and now, more -- annoyed at how little depth we got on the individual people of the Rarámuri, and how much we got of the intolerable Scott Jureck and Barefoot Ted. (Side note: When I went to buy running huaraches online, I considered Luna Sandals, but when I learned that Barefoot Ted, the owner, who learned to make them from Miguel Luna, as we learn in this book, does not share his profits with Miguel Luna or the RarámuI people, I was so pissed. Yay, more white people committing intellectual property theft from indigenous people, profiting off of their traditional knowledge...so I bought Xero Shoes instead, which give 10% of profits to schools in Rarámuri communities)

And lastly, read the 1-star review of this book here on GoodReads by Dougal. It's great. It is very carefully researched and thought out so he noticed a lot of inconsistencies that I did not.

Anyway, this book still did have a positive influence on my running and I really enjoyed it, so here is my 2012 review...

Written in 2012:
was spellbound by this book, and it has made me a much better runner. I have a lot of good things to say about why I enjoyed this book and how it is useful, but being the critical social thought major, feminist anti-racist indigenist social worker I am, I also have to share what I didn't like. I'll do that first to get it out of the way so I can return to why I loved it.

Critique:
Christopher McDougall is an incredibly skillful and beautiful writer, but he has an arrogant voice in much of the book, or at least the first part. It reminded me of Kai (sp?) Risdahl from NPR's Marketplace, who always sounds far too sure of himself. Sort of cocky and masculine and white American in a very un-self aware way. The arrogance faded as McDougall talked more about other people and revealed his own vulnerabilities as a runner and as a man, but some of the voice issues continued to irk me along the way. It was the way he described every running woman with some variation of wispy blond hair streaming off her face and bright blue eyes and gorgeous face... It was the way he didn't talk about his own wife and daughter barely at all (I kept wondering--how does this guy manage to do all this and be a partner and dad? How does his wife feel about him risking his life? I wanted him to address these things as a woman probably would in her book). It was the way he occasionally made casual comments that othered the Tarahumara (or Rarámuri, as they call themselves in their language) people about whom he otherwise wrote with great respect. And I guess I wish he got to know more of the Rarámuri more closely to be able to describe them as the complex individual parents/sons/daughters/farmers/runners/community members they are, in the way that he described so intimately the self-obsessed individual American ultra marathoners and the (in my opinion, quite lovable) gringo-indio, Caballo Blanco. So, I'd love to sit down with McDougall and talk some about gender and race and then send him on his way. Because I enjoyed what he was able to do with this book and I love the way he wrote it, for the most part. So on to that.

Love:

I love that this is the first book about sports that I've been able to get through and actually care deeply about the final race scene and almost cheer and applaud when the race was won. (I am an athlete, but generally don't like reading about athletics because I find most discussions very one-track-minded. This book, however, wove athletics into a much larger narrative and kept me on the edge of seat.) I loved the way McDougall wove scientific and historical journalism in with storytelling back and forth, back and forth. I loved--and was impacted by--the way he used the stories of The Rarámuri runners and the American and International runners to explore the research on running shoes and how we've been fooled into spending lots of money to get more injuries. I've been running barefoot more and more often these days when I can find the right kind of trails, a sort of return to my childhood, with the hope that this will lessen the likelihood of injury. I loved how he described his own journey to run better and particularly the discussion on form--it has made me far more conscious of my form as I run, and I notice that I too feel lighter and quicker and hurt less as a result. I loved especially how he tied what seems kind of ridiculous--marathon and ultra-marathon running--into a basic need for survival, making the argument, through anthropology and biology and history, that humans evolved to run long distances, to run down and tire out our prey. I love this. This idea in itself rejuvenates me as a runner, as did the engrossing story of the great race in the Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon) of Northern México and all of the stories he shared of the races and runners that made the race possible.

I should also note that I read this book as a runner, as someone who works with and for indigenous people, and as someone who was trying to make sense of her experience in las Barrancas del Cobre back in 2002. I was 20 years old and studying Spanish. My parents and sister and I went on a trip to las Barrancas. At the little modest lodge we stayed, they asked a local Rarámuri man named José to guide us on a hike. He took us (cold weather Alaskan athletes) on an 18 mile hike up and down mountains and through farms and yards and mud shacks and corn fields and mountain trails and past one abandoned cave dwelling in the heat of summer. We were hot and exhausted. He was not in the least bit phased. He was wearing cowboy boots and jeans, which, I didn't realize until I read Born to Run, I guess made him quite the assimilated Rarámuri man. I kept returning to those memories as I read this book, trying to piece together my brief experience with what McDougall describes, and with the reality of what narcotraficantes have done to the Barrancas since then. I didn't come out with clear answers, but McDougall's description of the history of the Rarámuri/Tarahumara people and of las Barrancas, and the ways he told his own stories of traveling there and of the race there, did help me make sense of it.

In addition to worrying about the narcos and the Tarahuma, there is one thing that is left unsettled for me: I am worried about Jenn, "la brujita," the young party girl utramarathoner from Virginia Beach. I am worried about her drinking and the danger she is in. I came to like her and worry about her, and wonder if McDougall worried too but didn't write it in the book, or didn't notice how unhealthy she was. Will have to research that one on my own. ...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Jason rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Runners with frequent injuries

Born to Run is one of the most compelling books I've read in the last few years. And without a doubt, chapter 28 is THE most compelling 30 pages of non-fiction I've read in 8 years.

I'm not a runner. But reading this book dumped the same endorphins into my veins that marathoners get at mile 24, leaving me with a runner's 'high.' It also left me with a nasty distaste of athletic shoe companies for wielding the biggest scam in the market bonanza of athletic shoe sales since Nike glued rubber and ...more

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Nov 28, 2015 Thomas Strömquist marked it as dnf

DNF at about 10 %

I'm actually happy to finally giving in to the nagging and trying this book. Because, really, who does not enjoy being able to honestly say "told you so" once in a while?

McDougall is a snake oil salesman, with all the expressions and vocabulary of his trade. I did endure a minute or so of one of his "lectures" on YouTube and boy did his writing fall right into place!

Uninformed, argumentative and unscientific bull about the simple task if running. My fear is that he hurt people ...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Rick rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, sports

McDougall is a journalist, a former war correspondent and current feature writer on extreme sports, like ultra-marathons. Born to Run has the virtues and faults of feature magazine writing, particularly when articles are either exploded to book length or several with thematic links are knitted together to comprise a single book. The book is by turns fascinating and aggravating. Part of the problem is McDougall’s tendency to hyperbole, which given the dramatic nature of the potential consequences McDougall is a journalist, a former war correspondent and current feature writer on extreme sports, like ultra-marathons. Born to Run has the virtues and faults of feature magazine writing, particularly when articles are either exploded to book length or several with thematic links are knitted together to comprise a single book. The book is by turns fascinating and aggravating. Part of the problem is McDougall’s tendency to hyperbole, which given the dramatic nature of the potential consequences to running 100 miles in a desert or the drama that should be inherent in top competitors racing each other in circumstance of high risk or landscape changes in evolutionary understanding, is a technique that seems not just unnecessary but undermining. Everyone can’t be the greatest, the toughest, the fastest. Every circumstance can’t be life-changing, world shattering, life or death. Instead of a journalist he comes across as a marketing man.

Another part of the problem is McDougall has a school yard bully approach to storytelling—he uses the story-teller’s long arm advantage over the reader (he knows what’s coming; we’re reading to find out) to hold us at a distance, while he taunts with digressions, sidebars, and postponed payoffs, we swing away at the pages not getting where we want to get. The description of a Leadville ultra-marathon race that took place some years before the main events of the book goes on and on and several times I nearly went to the internet to find out the result because I was tired of flailing away while McDougall kept me waiting to indulge his sense of narrative fun.

But there is fascinating stuff, often engrossingly told, about the Tarahumara, a remote tribe of Native Americans in Mexico who are capable of running non-stop and never are injured; about how running shoes contribute to running injuries, about how world-class ultra-marathon races are competitively coed, and about the theory that lends itself to the book’s title, that humans evolved to run, contrary to what most experts claim. So there is enough here to keep most readers going who are interested in running (my fiancée, who is not interested in running but was interested in the Tarahumara gave up half-way through the book) and this kind of pop-journalism. I liked what I learned but didn’t enjoy the learning all that much. ...more

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Jan 05, 2019 Adam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: narration-4-star, story-5-star, audiobook, overdrive, nonfiction, read-2019

Review of the audiobook narrated by Fred Sanders.

Running has been a constant and positive part of my life for more than 10 years now, so much so that I'm surprised I've never actually read a book about running. This book is for anyone truly serious about running or interested in the science of running. We are given a brief history of ultra running and the genesis of the running shoe industry along with an anthropological analysis of why humans are genetically inclined to run long distances. I ...more

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Jan 06, 2016 Heidi The Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: diet-and-exercise, book-club, non-fiction

My running club recommended this read and I'm so glad that they did. It was informative, entertaining, and inspirational. Not only did it make me want to be a better runner, Born to Run left me with the feeling that it is mankind's destiny to be runners.

Some bits that I want to remember:
The author was getting running lessons from a mysterious ultra marathon runner in Mexico: "Think easy, light, smooth, and fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work ...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Karen rated it it was ok

Interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying. The author writes from a "seller" perspective--he's trying to drum up business for his writing. There were several points in the book where I was completely convinced he was going to tell me to purchase Tahitian Noni drinks, or other nonsense.

The story felt very sensationalized and pick-and-choose for the points that will help the book. Yes, he gave us several examples, but many times the examples seemed contradictory--the Tarahumara eat only a diet of ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 Lisa Dunckley rated it it was amazing

Born To Run is a fascinating book. As always, I love books where the author presents new information in an engaging fashion!! The interwoven themes include:

1) The history of Ultra-Marathons and the Ultra-Runners who compete in them. Ultra-Marathons are any races longer than a regular marathon (just over 26 miles). Most of them are 50km, 100km, 50 miles, or 100 miles (although they can be much longer). The marathoners themselves are...insane—I mean, incredible, athletes. There's Ann, for example, Born To Run is a fascinating book. As always, I love books where the author presents new information in an engaging fashion!! The interwoven themes include:

1) The history of Ultra-Marathons and the Ultra-Runners who compete in them. Ultra-Marathons are any races longer than a regular marathon (just over 26 miles). Most of them are 50km, 100km, 50 miles, or 100 miles (although they can be much longer). The marathoners themselves are...insane—I mean, incredible, athletes. There's Ann, for example, a short, slender, community college teacher, who was the female champion of the Western States 100 FOURTEEN TIMES, and during one fun four year stretch, she ran an ultramarathon every other month. Yet she seemed to get stronger and faster the more she ran. Why doesn't she get injuries, like most runners do?

2) The Tarahumara Indians from Mexico have this inexplicable ability to run hundreds of miles without becoming exhausted, and to do it constantly without any running injuries. Oh, and while barefoot or wearing homemade sandals, not fancy running shoes.

3) Why do all (normal) runners have such a huge percentage of running related injuries? Roughly 8 out of 10 runners are injured EVERY YEAR! Injuries are increasing, marathon times are not. What the heck are we doing wrong??

4) The Leadville Trail 100, which is one of the scariest races imaginable. It's the highest altitude city in North America, and one of the coldest. So it's perfect for a 100 mile race. Especially when the starting line is twice as high as the altitude where airplanes pressurize their cabins, and it only goes up from there.

5) Are humans designed to run without shoes, and is all our technology and sophisticated gear making things worse? Is there biological and evolutionary evidence that we were originally engineered to run? Or is that completely wrong?

There are multiple ultra-marathoners and multiple (horrifying sounding) ultra races compared in here. The evolution stuff was especially interesting. The entire book was really fascinating—since I find running in general to be downright boring! So if I find a book about running to be THIS entertaining, then the author did a great job!!

Recommend to anyone who runs, or anyone who is a fan of learning interesting random things (like me)!! ...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Brooke rated it it was amazing

This book was so awesome that it almost made me want look at running as something other than torture, and then once I could do that, to start running for fun. Almost.

There are a lot of derails (or seeming derails) in this book. So the continuity of the story gets lost semi-regularly. However, the derails are always interesting material, and almost always tie back into the overarching story really well in the end.

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Nov 12, 2009 JulesQ rated it really liked it

My four-star rating is actually a 7 on a 10-point scale, which is the composite score from my three ratings of it, my rating as an aspiring runner, its rating as a story, and its rating as journalism/non-fiction.

As a runner, I give this book a solid 10. By the end of it I was so inspired about running that I wanted to just go and run 50 miles right out the gate. I'm not even kidding (however, I thought better of that and decided to stick to my 3-mile jaunts). So, way to be super inspiring, Born ...more

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Nov 09, 2010 Steve rated it really liked it

This reminded me of one of those great human interest stories you might have stumbled upon in Sports Illustrated back in its heyday. The personalities were interesting, the pace was good, and the fact that it’s a fringe sport made it all the more fascinating. Hundred mile ultras at altitude are bound to attract an odd cast of characters. To the preternaturally persistent nut cases on the US side add a remote tribe of corn beer-quaffing, peace-loving, super runners from the Copper Canyons of ...more

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Nov 29, 2018 Emma Scott rated it it was amazing

This book is so much more than a story about a race. It’s spiritual, heartwarming, with a vein of human compassion running straight through it and that is the real plot of the book. I think too often we are told we have limitations and, even more often than that, we believe them. Knowing that we are stronger and more resilient than the thoughts in our head tell us we are (or that society lures is into believing) is the first step towards health. Reading this book is a good place to start ...more

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About Christopher McDougall

Christopher McDougall

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Christopher McDougall is an American author and journalist best known for his 2009 best-selling book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. He has also written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Men's Journal, and New York, and was a contributing editor for Men's Health.

McDougall is a 1985 graduate of Harvard University. He spent ...more

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“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” — 585 likes

“You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.” — 197 likes

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