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Otis Chandler's Reviews > Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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Fascinating tales of super runners, and some of the science of why some humans can do 100 mile running races, and even how we evolved from being a running race.
The book starts with an investigation of why "Up to eight out of every ten runners are hurt every year.", a notion that stands at odds with the fact that some people can run, and even compete in, races that are 26, 50, 100, and even 150 miles long. In particular, there is a race of people in Mexico, the Tarahumara who regularly do runs of those distances, over crazy hard terrain and in crazy hot temperatures. Clearly, these people have figured out how to run without injuring themselves, and how to do it while having FUN! Both of those are key.
I'd heard about and read a little about proper running form being to not heel strike, but this put that into a new light. Aside from the Tarahumara running crazy distances in rubber sandals, there was this quote from legendary Stanford running coach Vin Lananna:
"Coach Lananna walked over to explain. “I can’t prove this,” he explained, “but I believe when my runners train barefoot, they run faster and suffer fewer injuries."
Between that and the publication of this book, thus began the explosion of barefoot shoes (side note: anyone know how those things are selling these days?). Basically barefoot training forces your feet to land more gently, is how we evolved to run, and mucking with that by putting on big cushioned running shoes is why so many runners get injured. Thanks, Nike. Certainly worth trying.
The Running Theory of Evolution was interesting too - what if humans became upright because we had evolved into the ultimate distance running machines, using that for millennia to hunt before we invented tools like the bow and arrow. It is possible to hunt a deer by running it down, but it takes ~4-6 hours - basically, marathon distance - hmmm... Also interesting is that all running animals (cheetah, dogs, horses, etc) can only take one breathe per stride because of the way their lungs work - we humans are the only ones who can take multiple.
"Because if David was right, he’d just solved the greatest mystery in human evolution. No one had ever figured out why early humans had separated themselves from all creation by taking their knuckles off the ground and standing up. It was to breathe! To open their throats, swell out their chests, and suck in air better than any other creature on the planet."
So basically, we evolved into a running species and it's in our genes. Not all of us love it anymore because... well we don't need to run to survive anymore. But if you can dig in and discover how to do it properly, you might unlock a love of something that our bodies possibly actually ARE designed to do, despite a lot opinions to the contrary.
Some distance runners and endurance athletes do what they do because they are trying to punish some demon inside themselves. But I think that running for the love of it is really the best message this book contains. That's why the Tarahumara have smiles on their faces as they run - something I'm going to keep in mind.
"That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running."
The book starts with an investigation of why "Up to eight out of every ten runners are hurt every year.", a notion that stands at odds with the fact that some people can run, and even compete in, races that are 26, 50, 100, and even 150 miles long. In particular, there is a race of people in Mexico, the Tarahumara who regularly do runs of those distances, over crazy hard terrain and in crazy hot temperatures. Clearly, these people have figured out how to run without injuring themselves, and how to do it while having FUN! Both of those are key.
I'd heard about and read a little about proper running form being to not heel strike, but this put that into a new light. Aside from the Tarahumara running crazy distances in rubber sandals, there was this quote from legendary Stanford running coach Vin Lananna:
"Coach Lananna walked over to explain. “I can’t prove this,” he explained, “but I believe when my runners train barefoot, they run faster and suffer fewer injuries."
Between that and the publication of this book, thus began the explosion of barefoot shoes (side note: anyone know how those things are selling these days?). Basically barefoot training forces your feet to land more gently, is how we evolved to run, and mucking with that by putting on big cushioned running shoes is why so many runners get injured. Thanks, Nike. Certainly worth trying.
The Running Theory of Evolution was interesting too - what if humans became upright because we had evolved into the ultimate distance running machines, using that for millennia to hunt before we invented tools like the bow and arrow. It is possible to hunt a deer by running it down, but it takes ~4-6 hours - basically, marathon distance - hmmm... Also interesting is that all running animals (cheetah, dogs, horses, etc) can only take one breathe per stride because of the way their lungs work - we humans are the only ones who can take multiple.
"Because if David was right, he’d just solved the greatest mystery in human evolution. No one had ever figured out why early humans had separated themselves from all creation by taking their knuckles off the ground and standing up. It was to breathe! To open their throats, swell out their chests, and suck in air better than any other creature on the planet."
So basically, we evolved into a running species and it's in our genes. Not all of us love it anymore because... well we don't need to run to survive anymore. But if you can dig in and discover how to do it properly, you might unlock a love of something that our bodies possibly actually ARE designed to do, despite a lot opinions to the contrary.
Some distance runners and endurance athletes do what they do because they are trying to punish some demon inside themselves. But I think that running for the love of it is really the best message this book contains. That's why the Tarahumara have smiles on their faces as they run - something I'm going to keep in mind.
"That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running."
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Born to Run.
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Reading Progress
September 17, 2012
– Shelved
March 22, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
self-improvement
January 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
health
January 28, 2020
– Shelved as:
sports
February 10, 2020
–
Started Reading
February 10, 2020
– Shelved as:
training
February 16, 2020
–
Finished Reading
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Elzy
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Sep 18, 2011 05:50AM
Excellent book!
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Does that mean you recommend it? What is the top thing you learned?
Hopefully you will travel to the Copper Canyon in Mexico to meet the Tarahumara ... I went there in 1995 -- as we started a walking hike across rocky terrain, a young boy of probably 10-12 years old started running barefoot on an adjacent trail ... naturally he "won" but the amazing thing was he wasn't tired nor did his feet show any strain ... convinced me to continue going barefoot wherever possible ... now at 80, no feet problems!! 😍
That’s amazing! And I would love to.
(side note: anyone know how those things are selling these days?)It's such an interesting and important question. The barefoot movement is fascinating because it seems to spring up every few years whenever the local marathon or fun run is on. Or some journalist who hasn't previously heard of it catches wind.
What I've learnt over the last 3 years of running barefoot and closely watching the narrative around it and other people's experience is this.
Most people try to transition too quickly and get injured. I switched to a fore-foot strike and then to barefoot in a very small window. I was initially looking to improve my sprinting form but then had an inkling it might help prevent shin splints as well. Unfortunately, I kept running the same distance I was before. It absolutely torched my calves. Months of really, really painful calves, struggling to walk. So I backed off and went lighter and gradually built back up to my original volume. This worked.
All the really good runners I've read about who try to transition make that same mistake of keeping their volume and switching technique, this just causes so many issues. They have a bad experience think it's all bullshit and switch back. It's so important to understand that when you change your gait like that, and are doing thousands of repetitions at a high level of force, things are going to hurt if you don't take it slowly.
Not that my personal anecdotal evidence means anything but I did get faster and my shin splints are gone. I can't reach the same pace I used to when going downhill though because you can't take the impact in the same way and I have a bit more trouble with my knees. I do enjoy running more, I get some seriously weird looks if running in sandals and I still wear thick heeled trainers when doing rough terrain or team training.
Another thing to think about is whether people are actually running barefoot or not. Even the Huarache sandals are not barefoot and they modify your gait, albeit not the same way a high heeled running shoe does. I try to do most of my runs without any footwear on a field near my house but it's not practical for training with teams etc.
There are a lot of "zero drop" sneakers on the market which are supposed to emulate running barefoot but it's not the same and you don't see a huge number of the world's best marathoner's wearing them. I think they're a good halfway house though.
The biggest thing that holds barefoot back are things like the new Nike Vaporfly 4% worn by Kipchoge to break the 2 hour mark in the marathon. Those are in the news for essentially being mechanical doping. Clearly, they improve performance and they have an enormous heel. Although interestingly the performance increase actually comes from the stiffness of the carbon fibre insert in the shoe coupled with the foam around it.
I think the last time someone won a marathon of significance barefoot was in the 1960 Olympics in Rome when Abebe Bikila won the gold barefoot. He won gold in Tokyo in 64 as well but with shoes on.
Of course you can train barefoot and then compete with shoes on which might be the ultimate solution.
The last thing I wanted to say is you should check out Loren Landow's Masterclass in Speed Development. It's a long video but the way he describes how the foot and leg works to create power was mind blowing to me and helped me understand the biomechanics behind the action. It is more applicable to sprinting but you can extrapolate what he says to long distance.
Otis you should read "Running with the Kenyans" So good! Adharanand Finn's ultrarunning book which came later is great too. Never too late to run a 10k PR 🙂
Wow thanks Boy! Great stuff. Sounds like a hard transition to make. Good tip on the master class. And thanks Amar - I will put that on the list!
