Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, is a 2009 best-selling non-fiction written by the American author and journalist Christopher McDougall.
In Born to Run, McDougall tracks down members of the reclusive Tarahumara Native Mexican tribe in the Mexican Copper Canyons.
Beyond hyperbole, he writes "In Tarahumara land, there was no crime, war, or theft. There was no corruption, obesity, drug addiction, greed, wife-beating, child abuse, heart disease, high blood pressure or carbon emissions. They didn’t get diabetes, or depressed, or even old."
After being repeatedly injured as a runner himself, McDougall marvels at the tribe's ability to run ultra distances (over 100 miles) at incredible speeds, without getting the routine injuries of most American runners. The book has received attention in the sporting world for McDougall's description of how he overcame injuries by modeling his running after the Tarahumara.
He asserts that modern cushioned running shoes are a major cause of running injury, pointing to the thin sandals worn by Tarahumara runners, and the explosion of running-related injuries since the introduction of modern running shoes in 1972.
Although he reports that the Berne Grand Prix questionnaire supports that opinion, the study authors clearly say — "Occurrence of jogging injuries was independently associated with higher weekly mileage (P < 0.001), history of previous running injuries (P < 0.001), and competitive training motivation (P = 0.03)." However they did find some correlation between higher shoe prices and increased injuries, but explicitly warn — "It is probably incorrect, however, to interpret this surprising finding to mean that more expensive shoes cause more running injuries…".
Alongside his research into the Tarahumara, McDougall delves into why the human species, unique among primates, has developed traits for endurance running. He promotes the endurance running hypothesis, arguing that humans left the forests and moved to the savannas by developing the ability to run long distances in order to literally run down prey.
The book was on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than four months. The book was criticized by book critic Dan Zak of The Washington Post for what he thought were extraneous effort: "McDougall's prose, while at times straining to be gonzo and overly clever, is engaging and buddy-buddy, as if he's an enthusiastic friend tripping over himself to tell a great story."
Read more about the book at Wikipedia
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