Christopher McDougall - Born to Run.nfo
General Information
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Title: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Author: Christopher McDougall
Read By: Fred Sanders
Copyright: 2009
Audiobook Copyright: 2009
Genre: Social Sciences
Publisher: Random House Audio
Abridged: No
File Information
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Number of MP3s: 55
Total Duration: 10:56:46
Total MP3 Size: 305.71
Parity Archive: No
Ripped By: NMR
Encoded At: CBR 64 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono
Normalize: None
Noise Reduction: None
ID3 Tags: Set, v1.1, v2.3
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Book Description
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http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Christopher-McDougall/dp/0739383728/ref=ed_oe_a
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Book Description
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge
science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic
adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe
in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running
is wrong.
Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive
of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow
them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from
a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their
superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving
the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern
existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives
among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets
of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he
trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the
heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of
Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer,
and a barefoot wonder.
With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech
science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks
across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are
pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race
in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only
engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret
to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us,
were born to run.
Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Christopher McDougall
Question: Born to Run explores the life and running habits of the Tarahumara
in the world. What are some of the secrets you learned from them?
Christopher McDougall: The key secret hit me like a thunderbolt. It
about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same
and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with
quickly with minimal damage.
ancestors. 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.
And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings,
what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through
Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and
spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. But all
of that begins with your feet. Strange as it sounds, the Tarahumara
taught me to change my relationship with the ground. Instead of hammering
run lightly and gently on the balls of my feet. The day I mastered it
was the last day I was ever injured.
mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some
What was your training like?
adventure-sports coach from Jackson Hole, Wyoming named Eric Orton.
and looking for transferable skills. He studies rock climbing to find
With some 70% of all runners getting hurt every year, the athlete who
can stay healthy and avoid injury will leave the competition behind.
So naturally, Eric idolized the Tarahumara. Any tribe that has 90-year-old
men running across mountaintops obviously has a few training tips up
its sleeve. But since Eric had never actually met the Tarahumara, he
had to deduce their methods by pure reasoning. His starting point was
uncertainty; he assumed that the Tarahumara step into the unknown every
have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if
in a last-minute bout of negotiating and could stretch anywhere from
50 miles to 200-plus.
Eric figured shock and awe was the best way for me to build durability
mix lots of hill repeats and short bursts of speed into every mega-long
run.
that from the start. I basically defied him to turn me into a runner.
And by the end of nine months, I was cranking out four hour runs without
a problem.
and are training for more. Is there a body type for running, as many
of us assume, or are all humans built to run?
hurt is because I was too big to handle the impact shock from my feet
hitting the ground. Just recently, I interviewed a nationally-known
kinds of body types exist today, so obviously they DID evolve to move
this learned helplessness, this idea that you have to be some kind of
elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement.
runner who is looking to make the leap from shorter road races to marathons,
or marathons to ultramarathons? Is running really for everyone?
The ultrarunners have got a hold of some powerful wisdom. You can see
it at the starting line of any ultra race. I showed up at the Leadville
Trail 100 expecting to see a bunch of hollow-eyed Skeletors, and instead
figure out why, until one runner explained that throughout history,
the four basic ingredients for optimal health have been clean air, good
food, fresh water and low stress. And that, to a T, describes the daily
breathing pine-scented breezes, eating small bursts of digestible food,
downing water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with
and enjoy the run. No one cares how fast you run 50 miles, so ultrarunners
strong, not shave a few inconsequential seconds off a personal best.
Q: You write that distance running is the great equalizer of age and
gender. Can you explain?
nineteen, runners get faster every year until they hit their peak at
twenty-seven. After twenty-seven, they start to decline. So if it takes
you eight years to reach your peak, how many years does it take for
you to regress back to the same speed you were running at nineteen?
ultra races are the only sport in the world in which women can go toe-to-toe
with men and hand them their heads. Ann Trason and Krissy Moehl often
beat every man in the field in some ultraraces, while Emily Baer recently
finished in the Top 10 at the Hardrock 100 while stopping to breastfeed
her baby at the water stations.
humans are the greatest distance runners on earth. We may not be fast,
we once hunted in packs and on foot; all of us, men and women alike,
young and old together.
Q: One of the fascinating parts of Born to Run is your report on how
or pizza and beer the night before a run. As a runner with a lot of
miles behind him, what are your thoughts on nutrition for running?
of prison-camp diet to get ready for an ultra, but the best advice I
got came from coach Eric, who told me to just worry about the running
and the eating would take care of itself. And he was right, sort of.
I instinctively began eating smaller, more digestible meals as my miles
increased, but then I went behind his back and consulted with the great
Dr. Ruth Heidrich, an Ironman triathlete who lives on a vegan diet.
of all time lived on fruits and vegetables. You can get away with garbage
for a while, but you pay for it in the long haul. In the book, I describe
Mountain Dew in the middle of 100-mile races, but Jenn is also a vegetarian
who most days lives on veggie burgers and grapes.
surge in the popularity of running. Can you explain this?
CM: When things look worst, we run the most. Three times, America has
crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression; the next was
riots, assassinations, a criminal President and an awful war. And the
third boom? One year after the Sept. 11 attacks, trailrunning suddenly
a trigger in the human psyche that activates our first and greatest
survival skill whenever we see the shadow of approaching raptors.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
[McDougall] seeks to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara the old-fashioned
way: He tracks them down. . . . The climactic race reads like a sprint.
being pretentious. Most passages are short and engaging with extra doses
of drama and exclamatory phrases thrown in to great effect. McDougall
wisely grounds the narrative in his own struggle to engage in the concluding
insightful sidebars on a variety of topics, from the development of
the modern running shoe to an evolutionary argument that humans are
kus, starred review
"A wildly fascinating story, perfectly told. Born to Run is an instant
"Born to Run is hilariously funny, weird, and nonstop fun to read. Runners
Boston Marathon
treads across the continent to pierce the soul and science of long-distance
running. McDougall's ambitious search leads him deep into the ragged
folds of Mexico's Copper Canyon, where he somehow manages the impossible:
He plumbs the mystic secrets of the fleet-footed Tarahumara Indians
ton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers
"Christopher McDougall writes like a world-class ultramarathoner, with
so much ease and heart and gusto that I couldn't stop reading this thrilling,
fascinating book. As soon as I finished, all I wanted to do was head
It's funny, insightful, captivating, and a great and beautiful discovery.
There are lessons here that translate to realms beyond running. The
e Cox, author of Swimming to Antarctica
exhilarating, funny and weirdly absorbing, Born to Run is a breathless
Soup
Guide to Running
on humans pushing themselves to the limits. A brilliantly written account
author of Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know
From the Hardcover edition.
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