Book Review — Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

“Everything about the Tarahumara seemed backward, taunting, as irritatingly ungraspable as a Zen master’s riddles. The toughest guys were the gentlest; battered legs were the bounciest; the healthiest people had the crappiest diet; the illiterate race was the wisest; the guys working the hardest were having the most fun…”

So begins the exploration of a riddle by author Christopher McDougall in his excellent book Born to Run.

I will say at the outset of this review that I could not, in fact did not, put this book down as I read it cover to cover on an airplane ride recently. I was transfixed with the McDougall’s glorious story telling and hanging in anticipation to see what would come next. After reading a few chapters, I was ready to bestow a title on this book that I have always hoped to bestow: best running book ever. Alas, I can’t quite go that far, for reasons that I will explain, but this book comes close. Born to Run provides an interesting and exciting portrait of a part of the sport of running that most of us don’t even know exists.

Born to Run is part action adventure story and part scientific exploration into the art of running. The backdrop of the story was Christopher McDougall’s investigative reporting into an indigenous culture of the isolated Mexican region known as the Barrancas del Cobre or Copper Canyons. The people, known as the Tarahumara, live in this isolated region with a culture mostly unchanged from their ancestors. They live in caves and small cliff dwellings. They are known for their ability to hide and disappear when approached, giving them an almost ghostlike quality in history. And they are known to run. They have been famed for their ability to run gracefully, effortlessly, and with seemingly unending energy over amazing distances. Running is a part of their culture, it is a means of transportation, and it is also a social outlet and a way of staying healthy.

McDougall began researching the Tarahumara after seeing a picture of one of their members in a magazine photo. The picture showed a man running down a steep slope in his traditional Tarahumara garb and the traditional sandals that their people wear for running. He was fascinated by the photo and started to following the trail; He began exploring the history of the Tarahumara, their few appearances with modern competitive running and a mysterious character called the Caballo Blanco, who becomes a central figure in the story.

Caballo Blanco, who McDougall hoped to meet in order to talk about the ways of the Tarahumara, was at the time of their meeting in the very early stages of hoping to stage a race between some of the best ultra-runners in the modern competitive arena and some the best Tarahumara runners. The timing may have been a coincidence, but it allowed McDougall to chronicle this race that pitted Tarahumara runners on their home turf against Scott Jurek and other top runners. Born to Run faithfully tells us the story leading up to the race and then gives us the play-by-play of the race itself (in which McDougall was also a participant).

Born to Run is a fantastic journey. I found myself wondering early on in the book whether these amazing people really existed out there. Could it be that there was a group of super-runners that weren’t even on the radar screens of the running world? But the book makes clear that it is not fiction as it begins to weave together people we’ve all heard of and these super-runners from deep isolation in the Mexican canyon-lands into one exciting story.

Born to Run does take a few detours in telling us the story of the race in the canyons. McDougall tries to answer the questions that immediately pop into our heads while we’re reading this book: what do these people eat; how can they run so far; why don’t they get injured when they run as much as they do; and, how can they run up and down the sides of canyons wearing basic leather sandals? Through several chapters of the book, McDougall digs into the science that would help us understand some of these questions.

And the answers are controversial to say the least. If you accept the arguments that McDougall’s experts are making, then you would have to accept for example that most of our modern running injuries (such as shin splints and stress fractures) are caused by modern running shoes, not helped by them. You would also have to believe in evolutionary theory (and although I do, not everyone does), which the book jumps into to help us understand why humans were essentially built as long-distance running machines and (spoiler alert) that it was a combination of running and social ability that led the human race to be so successful, evolutionarily speaking.

I find many of the arguments made in this book to be quite compelling. As a running coach, for instance, I am often somewhat annoyed at people when they give other runners the advice to “plant their heels” or “get back on their heels”, because this advice always seems counter-intuitive to me. In my opinion, a runner that is not planting their heels (e.g. who is running on their forefeet) is likely in a better body position, and can run faster, than someone sitting back on their heels. McDougall’s experts make the point that modern running shoes, with their thick rubber heels, actually force us back on our heels, which is one of the things that leads to many knee and leg injuries. Their logic is that the foot was designed to work in conjunction with the Achilles Tendon and calf muscle to support the body quiet beautifully and that when running in bare feet, we land on the balls of our feet, putting us in a much better running position.

But going as far as laying all modern running injuries at the feet of modern running shoes seems a little extreme to me. I would counter that when comparing modern runners to runners of the past, today’s runners run the bulk of their mileage on pavement and concrete, which likely creates a great deal more impact on the foot than trails or dirt would have created. And additionally, such a wide variety of people now run that would have never run in the past, including people that over-weight, that this must have an impact on the plethora of running injuries that we see today.

Where ever you land on the more controversial topics discussed in this book, the debate is intriguing and interesting. There is so much good information in this book that I wished that the editors had added a category index at the back so that I could more easily find references to the many topics discussed in the book. And, while I’m asking for things from the editors, I might also add for a panel of photos, because after looking at photos of the Tarahumara on the Internet and photos taken at the race discussed, these are characters that are really helped by some good visuals.

Born to Run is a book that I will read again and I highly recommend it. If you are interested in ultra-running in the least, you will enjoy this book. But even if you are not, the writing is a joy and you will experience a fascinating new people and a great adventure in making your way through this fantastic read.

You can buy the book at Amazon.com by clicking on this link: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

For an interesting article and photos of the Tarahumara at National Geographic’s web-site, click here.

For a set of photos taken at the race in the book, click here.

Coach Joe English, Managing Editor
Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com

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