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Born to Run

The Hidden Tribe, the Ultra-Runners, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

By Christopher McDougall

(32)

| Paperback | 9781861978776

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Critics

Book Review: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall Share

The term marathon has become synonymous with long and grueling: an experience only the strongest manage to make it all the way through. Students speak of marathon study sessions before a big exam, volunteers man phones for a good cause with an all-da ... (read full critics)

blogcritics published on Tue, 12 Apr 2011

Book Review: Born to Run

How are those expensive new running shoes feeling? Those ones you shelled out a couple of hundred bucks for and that have seen more of the hall cupboard than they'll ever see of the street? They'll feel a lot less comfortable by the time you get to t ... (read full critics)

nzherald published on Fri, 1 Oct 2010

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8 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

A well written book on ultra-running and a theory about human being built as endurance runner. You would love it if you enjoy long distance running.

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40迷 said on Feb 21, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

A whole new attitude to running...

For someone like me who see running as a leisure/hobby with my every run equipped by Nike gadgets and music, this book lets me see running from a totally different perspective, and convinced me that we are in fact all born to run! This book makes the case that human body is designed for distance run ... (continue)

For someone like me who see running as a leisure/hobby with my every run equipped by Nike gadgets and music, this book lets me see running from a totally different perspective, and convinced me that we are in fact all born to run! This book makes the case that human body is designed for distance running, and strips running right back to its basics. It also introduced me to the concept of barefoot running; apparently the modern soft cushioned trainers are the main cause of running injuries, which stop us from sensing/adjusting our strides to use the right muscles and run the right way.
Very interesting book overall and makes me think of running in an entirely different way. Only negative is the first few chapters are a bit slow-going... but stick with it and you will get a rewarding read.
Ok, enough book/running talk, now I want a pair of Vibram five fingers to start experimenting with barefoot running!!

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olivia said on Oct 10, 2010 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

This is really two books: a series of athlete and competition descriptions, and several essays on disparate running-related science. I didn't care about the people at all. The science was interesting and very approachable, but clearly written by a sports writer. He gets a few things outright wro ... (continue)

This is really two books: a series of athlete and competition descriptions, and several essays on disparate running-related science. I didn't care about the people at all. The science was interesting and very approachable, but clearly written by a sports writer. He gets a few things outright wrong and others are woefully incomplete.

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pktechgirl said on Apr 15, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

This book is guaranteed to inspire you to run!

This book on running easily outruns any other book on sport. It talks about the obscure Tarahumara tribe and their amazing running legends, tells spellbinding stories of ultramarathons and their gurus, reveals the true secrets of running, and - most importantly - gives us back our true identity: th ... (continue)

This book on running easily outruns any other book on sport. It talks about the obscure Tarahumara tribe and their amazing running legends, tells spellbinding stories of ultramarathons and their gurus, reveals the true secrets of running, and - most importantly - gives us back our true identity: that we are all born to run.

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Holmes said on Feb 9, 2012 | Add your feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

The most interesting information and knowledge I have gained from reading this book include:
(1) expensive shoes may induce more injuries and the safest may be just to run barefoot ; and
(2) human beings dominate the world because we were able to run longer distance than other species (inclu ... (continue)

The most interesting information and knowledge I have gained from reading this book include:
(1) expensive shoes may induce more injuries and the safest may be just to run barefoot ; and
(2) human beings dominate the world because we were able to run longer distance than other species (including deers or Neanderthals). One of the reasons is that we are capable of releasing heat through perspiration whereas the other mammals can't and therefore a deer (for example) may not stop after long distance which allows us to catch them.
At the beginning of reading this book, the Tarahumara guys seem much better than anybody else in terms of running but at the end, we realize that we can be like them, especially after training. I have learnt quite a bit about evolution, anthropology and physiology and it has opened my horizon in this topic. There are quite a lot of diversions because the final actual race took place. It is during these diversions that we have learnt a lot about running and ourselves (homo sapiens).
The book doesn't seem to like to stress upon the exact time but the race (the 1st race in Copper Canyon) described seems to happen in 2006. Reading to the end of the book, I even got sentimental and felt sad that the runners have had to part their way after the race finished. There was considerable mutual admiration among the runners as well as the people in Urique and around. It is a surprisingly good read.
The book uses a lot of slangs but I think I caught a typo: on p.185 (3rd line), "the first the time I met him" should be "the first time I met him".

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Yip Kin said on Feb 8, 2012 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

A good yarn, as well as good info on running

I'm a recent convert to exercise and having spent 40+ years of my life doing everything I could to avoid running, found that a side effect of exercising and getting fit was an ability to run. Small distances, nothing like those described in this book, but for me the thrill of anything over 'to the ... (continue)

I'm a recent convert to exercise and having spent 40+ years of my life doing everything I could to avoid running, found that a side effect of exercising and getting fit was an ability to run. Small distances, nothing like those described in this book, but for me the thrill of anything over 'to the corner shop and back' is worthwhile. So this book was my first book on running and I'm not someone who is going to invest a lot in books on running. But this one captured me on the first page when the author's description of his self so closely mirrored me - age, weight, exercise ability, that I had to read more. His completion of a 50 mile race was great to read, and the descriptions of these tribes of ultra runners in the US and Mexico were fascinating. Their 50-100 mile runs are described much as I think of my 5-8 mile runs - except they drop terms like 'got serious at the 60 mile mark'! What makes this book enjoyable is that McDougall threads the whole story with research & background - on the characters, on the science of running, on the history of ultra long distance running, rather than just layering on chapter after chapter of theory and opinion. Again, I didnt reach the end of the book and think I have to read more about X, Y or Z, but it has given me something to think about as I run and how I run.

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John Trigg said on Oct 10, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback