Born to Run

Numerous times I have told friends that I would never consider running a marathon. It's not that I don't enjoy running, I just didn't see wanting to put in the time to run enough to finish a 26.2 mile race. I thought it would take too much away from climbing, biking, or other activities that I love to do more. Then I read the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and now I want to run an Ultra!

The book follows the development of a race held in the remote, rugged mountains of Copper Canyon in North Central Mexico on trails used by the Tarahumara people. The Tarahumara are the "Running People," living and breathing for churning their legs over rocky earth. This race brings together top Ultra runners from the U.S. with the locals, and even though the story gets excited when it looks like all the work is going to fall apart, the showdown goes down.


Intertwined throughout this story are side-notes about the running community, in a sense explaining why we were "born to run". There are sections on nutrition/diet, the trend of barefoot running, a great story about the Leadville 100, and a whole treatise on why humans have evolved to run. McDougall goes so far as to say that running is a "silver bullet" to treat the health problems rampant in the States: obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, etc. But over all of this is a theme of enjoyment while running. The secret of great Ultra runners like the Tarahumara or Scott Jurek is they run because they love to run. McDougall describes a look of joy on their faces.

Images used from Runner's World.com

I think that's what I've been missing. Many of my friends run and I can see an incredible cross over into other sports that I do as well as being a great way to cover a lot of ground efficiently. The whole "light and fast" attitude is becoming more and more appealing. The desire to run is now there, I just have to find the joy. I think my problem in the past has been doing all my running on roads and in neighborhoods. It makes it really convenient, but I need to get out and run some trails enjoying the mountains that I love to be in anyway.