The astonishing national bestseller and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run.An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured … journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
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This book is such an inspirational read! Very entertaining and if you’re not ready to grab a pair of sneaks and run out the door after reading then theres something wrong with you 😛 I had only started running semi-regularly when I picked up this book and it definitely made me feel good about the decision to do so. Definitely recommend this book even for non-runners as the tale itself is pretty amazing!
For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the title of this book, so I just entered “running” into the search field on the mentions modal. Imagine my surprise when it still showed up as one of the top suggested results. Thanks, search!
By the title, one would think this book is ALL about running and nothing else. Although it is true running is the main theme, there is soooo much more. Chris is an uncanny good writer, sharing first-hand events as though he’s sitting in the chair next to you while you’re sipping on your favorite drink. I’m currently reading SHERMAN and, again, Chris strikes gold.
When an ultra-running friend gave me the Born to Run audiobook, I thought, Not another running book! Running is trendy, and it seems that new (and often boring) running books pop up like mushrooms. Apart from Dean Karnazes’s excellent Ultramarathon Man, there is only just so much you can read about running without overdosing. And I have nothing against running; it saved my life. I ran my first marathon at 16 and my first ultra at 17 before focusing on mountaineering and world expeditions. I’ve been an extreme endurance athlete my entire life and I’m still a competitive ultra-cyclist in my fifties. But I hate to admit that I didn’t listen to the audiobook. Years later, when I published Dancing with Death, I noticed that Born to Run was always at the top of the many categories in which my book competed, including Extreme Sport, Central American Travel, and Inspirational books. So I started listening to the audiobook.
Oh my. I was hooked! I wanted to slap myself for having dismissed such a brilliant memoir. I even bought the paperback to refer to. Masterfully written by Christopher McDougall, Born to Run takes you for a ride as you enter into not only the world of ultra-runners and endurance athletes but also the beautiful culture of the Tarahumara.
You don’t need to be a runner or running fan to engage with the emotional voyage in this book. Guided by the author’s sensitivity, you’ll journey into the life and culture of one of the last traditional Indigenous communities. Enlightening and inspirational, Born to Run is a MUST READ for all those who appreciate that real-life stories can be much better than any fiction. It’s real, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful. Read it!
A fascinating tale of the development of homo sapiens. The best part are McDougall’s descriptions of the ‘running tribes’ in the interior mountains of Mexico.
The most mesmerizing and astonishing running book I’ve ever read.
I loved this book! Very well written and researched. I am not a fitness fan and have certainly never been a runner or jogger but during this book, all I wanted to do was get out there and run, run, run! I can’t recommend this book strongly enough. It is so interesting to learn about the human body in this way, and also to learn of the tribes highlighted here. Brilliant!
I don’t run, at least not like I used to, but I do read fiction to nonfiction 3:1, and this was one – because how fascinating is this: There’s this tribe in Mexico that hunts by running the animal down until it literally dies of exhaustion, and within this tribe, there’s no crime, no depression, no cancer…basically no sicknesses of the body or soul. Christopher McDougall wrote a hell of a book about it, and after you’re done, you’ll want to go for a walk at least. Highly recommend.
“Only recently have we come up with the technology to turn lazing around into a way of life. We’ve taken our sinewy, durable, hunter-gatherer bodies and plunked them into an artificial world of leisure.”
A non fiction book that reads like fiction… Such wonderful characters!
This book was recommended to me by a non-running friend who told me ‘despite the fact I don’t run, I LOVE this book! It is so entertaining, funny and inspirational. It kept me hooked from beginning to end.’ I agree 100% with her assessment. This book is about running and runners and ultra runners and so much more. It is filled with interesting history and fascinating real life stories about people who are truly ‘born to run’ and yet the book eventually concedes, we are all born to run. We just choose not to do so. Such a cool book.