Born to Run is really a weaving of two and a half stories: The autobiographical telling to author Christopher McDougall’s journey to healthy running via changing to a minimalist running style, a history and overview of the distace-elite Tarahumara tribe native to Mexico, and (what I’m counting as the half-story) a brief explanation of (author’s opinion) how the 1970’s running boom brought about the demise of healthy running because of developing shoe technology encouraging a heel-strike running form.
I enjoyed this book for numerous reasons, the first of which was its “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t run” message. Next, I like the whole story of the Tarahumara tribe, a group of people I had never even heard of before and are incredibly fascinating. Last, despite his Bill Bowerman (Former Oregon distance coach, Nike co-founder, and general distance running icon)-bashing, his logical approach at explaining healthy running form was interesting and believable.
Overall this book was very much worth reading. If you ever get the chance to hear/see the author speak about the book and his experiences, I would also recommend partaking in such an event.
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