I read Christopher McDougall‘s mouthful-of-a-title book, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe , Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, over the past week and it was an absorbing read. The author not only described a foot race between members of an elusive indigenous tribe of long distance runners against the best there is in ultra-running in vivid detail, but use it to advance a singular, resounding but long-buried fact: humans are made for running.
The Tarahumara Indian tribe gets the spotlight in this book. Living in the Mexican Copper Canyons, this tribe of Indians have almost a mystical reputation of covering astounding distances (think 100 miles and above) at high speed without seemingly getting hurt themselves. The author seeks them out in order to find out their secret and gets close to them thanks to an unlikely, and most like crazy, source.
That’s not the only interesting character he meets along the way and the cast of characters include scientists, ultra-marathon runners, coaches….all of which working in parallel or in tandem to a conclusion that yes, humans are made for long distance running. The final race in which the world’s best ultra-marathoner, Scott Jurek going up against Tamahumara’s best is a gripping one thanks to the author’s narration but at the same time celebrates human camaraderie born simply out of the love for running.
I highly recommend this book, and if you are a runner and you have not read this yet, you owe it to yourself to get a copy. Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates this book at a 5 out of 5. Born to Run is available on Amazon, on paperback (click here) as well as on Kindle (click here)
