It’s taken me entirely too long to finish this book. It’s not for lack of interest, believe me, but rather from lack of time (work reading trumps pleasure reading every time). Back in May, I attended Chris McDougall’s event for Born to Run with Cowboy Hazel–you will all remember I was still pretty freaking injured and not running at all. This is what Chris wrote in my copy of the book:
To TK and her flying pigtails–
With this book may your hamstring troubles disappear. “Running is magic.”
Well, look at that. Chris’s book kept me company through Recovery #1 and Recovery #2. Just this week I decided I was okay enough to go through with my first endurance event since February. I like that timing.
Now, I didn’t read this story looking for training or performance advice. I know a bunch of folks have come away from this book feeling like McDougall is a barefot running evangelist (he is, but I doubt he’d insist it’s the only way). What I liked best about Born to Run was the people he presented–the ultrarunners, the Tarahumara, el Caballo Blanco, the scientists, the doctors, and himself. Like any talented journalist Chris drew out and then captured on the page each character that played a part in his own quest to learn how to run effortlessly and without injury. By the end of his book, I wanted to be a part of his band of Mas Locos. Also appealing to me were the notions that running is the basis for our humanity; running is free, freedom, and freeing; running is about connection and escape; running makes us better people. Sure it’s all a little bit romantic, sure it’s all a little bit crunchy–but Chris is writing about ultrarunners here, not your standard track stars. And, as a professional in the book publishing industry who notices these sorts of things, I must add that Chris’s acknowledgements are a lot of fun, too.
I also posted a separate review on Goodreads. And, many other bloggers and podcasters have reviewed Born to Run, here are the links:
- Dump Runners Club (ep 136)
- Brandon’s Marathon (ep 50)
- Run Westchester
- Adventures of Cowboy Hazel
- Run Ansky Run
- Barefoot Ted (one of the characters in Chris’s book)
- A Trail Runner’s Blog
- Cool Adventure Girls (PF: I’m adventurous in a different sort of way)
[…] TK just reviewed it. She comes to a different conclusion but also lists a number of other reviewers.] Possibly related […]
Wow, it seems like an eternity since that reading. Was it really just this May? Crazy.
I like your review, and your approach to the book. It was much more level headed than mine… 🙂
Robert, ha ha very funny! And I just realized that your friend Chris Baker knows people I work with! The three of us shld go to lunch one day!
read me run! https://pigtailsflying.wordpress.com
Actually, TK, I’m pretty sure he now thinks it is the “only” way, based upon recent interviews, including with Brandon (who he essentially said was a fool for wearing Newtons) and on RunnersRoundTable. As for your other points, I think we can agree to disagree.
Well it appears that his view has evolved (or perhaps my view was mistaken). In a posting on the Times related to barefoot running, he says:
[quote]it’s not about whether shoes are better than bare feet. it’s about what you DO in shoes, and what shoes do to you. logically, there’s really no question that keeping your feet bare is better than covering them; they are acutely designed sensory devices, same as your hands and eyes, so the less they’re encumbered, the better they work. nature doesn’t just dole out nerve endings willy-nilly — the fact that your feet are loaded with as much sensory-detection apparatus as your eyeballs means something. your feet allow you to instantly sense when your movements have become recklessly sloppy or the ground contours demand extra care. so if you’re a fan of blindfolds and oven mitts, then by all means, stick to thick, motion-controlling footwear.
* * *
and there you have it: that’s precisely the sweet spot where technology helps and doesn’t hurt. all this chatter about barefoot running boils down to one critical question — are you going to correct your movements, or are you going to trust some foam concoction to correct you? so far, the verdict on the concoctions is pretty damning — as i lay out in “born to run,” there is zero evidence that structured shoes do anything to prevent injuries and very likely help cause them. so before we invest in these things, shouldn’t we have some evidence that they actually do something?
rather than trusting some bulky, wedged monstrosity with zero science behind it, why not learn how to use your body’s excellent shock-absorption properties first? adapt to the ground; don’t try to novocaine your feet with foam and thunder down on it. Because “when you run with the earth,” qs the tarahumara say, “you can run forever.”[/quote]
He, in short, creates a strawman, i.e., “bulky, wedged monstosit[ies].” So I think he acknowledges that between barefeet and over-engineered shoes there’s an acceptable medium, a point with which I agree. But I think that barefoot running, or more particularly forefoot running, can for many equal slow running and that shoes allow for individuals to find their optimum footstrikes, which barefoot running does not.
And as I noted in my view, I think his chapter on over-engineered shoes is a highlight of the book.
Of course there’s the separate issue of over-engineered bras.
Every things need freedom, with fingers are not diferent.
But there is more: why the feet’arch is inside?
After climb in the tree, open yuor legs 45º and support the foot on the branch, you will get to leberate yours hands.
This is because the feet’arch is insede, and this is for you get fruit more easily.
Every doctors, fisiotherapic, …, explan than the feet’arc is insede for better run, but is’nt only this, the principal finality is to get fruit on the tree.
I am forest engineer, from Brazil, and some times walking in Amazonan forest, once time I spend 71 day in 250 miles , withaut to meet peple, and I know so is important the foot.
stpl@globo.com