Monday, March 01, 2010

Born to Run

Author: Christopher McDougall

One-sentence summary: A writer for Men’s Health magazine tracks down and studies a little-known tribe of ultra runners in Mexico and delves into their running secrets.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7

Our favorite thing about it: We enjoyed the inspiration to run the book exudes as well as the interesting facts about running and the Tarahumara tribe itself.

Our least favorite thing about it: The unnecessarily long chapter about evolution that was equal parts boring and annoying.

Main Topics of Discussion: Running shoes, Nutrition, Desire to Run, History of Running, Marathons, Evolution of Running

Our favorite quote: You don’t stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running. (p.202)

Notes: Several of us agreed that this book was inspirational and very interesting. We enjoyed learning a little bit about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico, which we had never before explored. There is an assumption to the book that everyone is born to run (even very long distances) and that anyone can enjoy running. We pretty much disagreed with this premise, although, we did acknowledge some of the research presented that could help some of us enjoy it more.

There were some annoyances with the writing style for some of us: the stringing together of what seemed like some separate magazine articles and the frequent use of hyperbole. It sometimes got old hearing that this tribe of people was absolutely perfect in every way because they were super runners.

The story of the big race in Mexico as well as the individual stories of the runners was very interesting to all of us. We enjoyed that thread of storyline throughout the book. We all marveled at the endurance and will of the runners and were absolutely in awe that they could run that far all at once.

We discussed the issue of barefoot running or at least running with less-padded shoes than we are all used to. We all agreed that it would be worth trying since the argument made in the book was pretty convincing. We have plans to do a barefoot book club race in the near future. (ha!)

Memorable Meeting Moments: Amberly received her birthday books

What We Ate: Beef Stew with Rice, Salad, Bread Rolls, and Chocolate Velvet Cheesecake

1 comment:

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