I got the book because of all the craze I had heard about it. See, over the past well, I'd say 6 months, I have been hooked on the new minimalist shoe craze that is going on. More and more research is coming out pointing to our modern shoes as being the reason why almost 70% of runners at any level will have at least one running related injury. This book speaks a lot about this new fad and reasons behind why we were all born to run, and, to run barefoot. It puts you on the inside of the Tarahumara tribe, a Mexican tribe that lives in the Copper Canyons in Northern Mexico. These people, from ages 12 to 90, run on a daily basis. And not just a few miles here and there, but they will go on races of nearly 100 miles. It also gives you insight on trail running and ultra running, and some of their most famous races, such as the Leadville 100, Western States 100, and Badwater, a 135 mile race in Death Valley, where the temperatures are so hot, that runners have to run on the white lines of the blacktop, because if they don't, the bottoms of their shoes will slowly melt.
Now, some of you might be reading this and saying that you are not born to run, or that we as humans were not meant to run. Think about it this: We run when we’re scared, we run when we’re ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time. There’s something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. When you were a kid, you probably did a lot of running, and, you probably did a lot of running barefoot. It was fun, you ran to your neighbors house, you played tag, or some other activity where you did a lot of running. You didn't care if you were good or bad at it, you just had fun doing it. That is the problem with the modern runner, they forgot what it was like to run as a kid and how much FUN it was! These days, running is about losing weight or money, and a lot of people dread having to do it. 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.
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. - Dr. Dennis Bramble.
This post is just the first of many in my series on explaining why humans were born to run, and why we should do it barefoot. Please comment if you feel the need to, I like hearing other people's opinions on running and barefoot running.
Great book! I read it, then re-read it, taking copious notes. I was as much interested in the history of the running tribes and the nutrition as the ability to run barefoot. While my feet don't require additional support, they do need cushion as I'm finding out. They just get beat up easily. Especially on the trails. So I've gone anti-minimalist for my really long ultra stuff: Hoka One Ones. They look wierd but feel great and are now my favorite shoes. But I'll tell you, I'm a little jealous of people who can successfully run with minimal shoes because it just seems so natural. Keep up the training!
ReplyDeleteI actually found an audio copy of Born to Run which I listen to on my runs. It gives me drive to keep going farther.
ReplyDeleteI have started the minimalist with two different shoes, the Nike Free v2 and the Saucony Kinvara 2. It took some getting used to at first, but now it's great.
My most recent focus is on getting down to the 180 "beats" or steps per minute. Smaller strides, faster turnover = running farther and faster.