The novel, Born To Run, by Christopher McDougall, is about the evolution of running shoes and how runners develop. It is a true story about Chris who discovers a tribe of Mexican runners living in the mountains of Mexico. This tribe lives a simple lifestyle of eating, hunting, drinking (alcohol), and running. Chris goes looking for these people for answers when he discovers that maybe running shoes are hurting the everyday runner. He begins to wonder that maybe the human was meant to run in barefoot, as the Mexican tribe does who never get injured and are far less prone to diseases than the modern worlds people. Chris eventually finds these people and sets up an ultra-marathon race with this tribe and some of the best ultra-marathoners in the world. The race is an extremely intense 100 kilometres through the tough terrain of the Mexican mountains and you will have to read the book to see who breaks the tape first after a grueling 100 kilometres.
The element of character development was a big one in this novel. I mentioned the Mexican Tribesman before who are called the Tarahumara. The Tarahumara, or the running people, were kicked out of their land by modern Mexico’s drug lords and were forced to flee into the mountains. This caused the Tarahumara to despise the people of the modern world avoiding them at all costs. As Chris and the other ultra runners ran alongside these people in this tough race, they bonded and the Tarahumara began to forgive the people of the modern world. The Tarahumara realized that some of the people from the modern world were not evil and corrupted like the drug lords of Mexico. Chris’ use of similes and different comparisons made the writing very appealing to read and quite exciting, especially if you are a runner reading it. Chris has convinced me to give barefoot running a shot and to see whether or not it will improve my injured hips and knees.
A few of my favorite quotations from this book I will show you, “Sure, plenty of people will throw up excuses about Kenyans having some kind of mutant muscle fiber, but this isn’t about why other people got faster; it’s about how we got slower.” This is one of my favorite quotes of the book because the number one reason that runners don’t give it their all is because of lame excuses and that is what I try to eliminate from my running. Another quotation is fairly similar talking about how running shoes hurt the everyday runner, “Lost in all the fireworks between Ted and Caballo was an important point; running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot.” I like this one because I have wanted to know what has been so harmful to feet to make them more prone to injury than before there were running shoes. Chris also has a really interesting writing style that would keep even non-runners interested. The last quotation I want to share is long so I cut it down so it may not make sense but I will explain it, “That’s big bucks for sneaks you’ll have to toss in the garbage in ninety days, but at least you’ll never limp again. Right? Sorry.” It is talking about how the most advanced running shoes in the world are extremely high tech and even the shoes Adidas spent three million dollars and eight years to build will not make the injury rate of runners decrease.
This book was extremely informative and I will be taking the advice of Chris and the Tarahumara to stay away from overbuilt running shoes. I recommend this book to every runner out there who has been injured or may be wearing overbuilt shoes.
By Andrew Irwin
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