Born to Run

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

By: Christopher McDougall

“When you run on the earth and

Run with the earth, you can run forever.”

— a Tarahumara saying

He passed us, hooting and hollering, at approximately the 97-mile mark of the Mother Road 100.  “Damn,” groaned John Rennison, as we shuffled along Route 66 toward the finish line in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, “there goes Ted”.  On the subsequent shuttle ride back to our car at the start line, Barefoot Ted McDonald regaled us with tales of his accomplishments as one of America’s premier barefoot runners.  While the rest of us in the van sat exhausted from a long day and night of running, Ted maintained a torrid pace of chatter.

Back at the start line, and without a ride to the airport, Ted benefited from John Turner’s generosity and jumped into the rental car with us.  I had read about Barefoot Ted in articles in Runner’s World and Ultra Running magazines, so I took this opportunity to ask him about his recent experiences with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico.  I found Ted  entertaining,  but as I hadn’t showered and felt tired and cranky, I was happy to part ways with him at the Will Rogers International airport in Oklahoma City.

A few months later, I exchanged emails and phone calls with the 7-time Western States 100 Mile champion, Scott Jurek.  I had signed up with Scott for some consultation sessions in preparation for the upcoming ultra season.  Always humble, Scott also shared with me his impressions of his encounters with the Tarahumara.

So when I first saw an ad for Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon.  Excited to delve further into fascinating stories of the Tarahumara, I began reading it at once.  Much to my dismay, I found the first few chapters uninspiring. McDougall’s tales of his search for the reclusive Caballo Blanco seemed exaggerated, so I found myself putting the book away for a while.  A fellow Burlington Runner then suggested I review Born to Run, so I decided to pick it up again and read on.

In this his first book, journalist and former war correspondent Christopher McDougall explains how he sets out to learn as much as possible about the Tarahumara tribe in a search to answers to his own questions regarding foot injuries he had suffered after taking up the sport of running. The Tarahumara, or Raramuri, (meaning “runners on foot”) are not only known for their athletic prowess and barefoot running, but also for their simple and particularly healthy lifestyle giving them the distinction of being a society void of violence and illness.  They had experienced some success in ultra-running events in the U.S. years earlier when a race promoter invited Tarahumara runners to participate.  McDougall shares these stories with the readers, but I felt that his narrative of these accounts were a bit too fantastic.

Caballo Blanco, a transplanted Coloradoan mountain runner living in Mexico, dreams of hosting a world-class ultra running event in Mexico’s remote Copper Canyon.  He enlists McDougall and an interesting blend of American runners.  Along with elite runners Jurek and Luis Escobar, Barefoot Ted, up-and-coming ultra star Jenn Shelton and her surfer-dude companion Billy “Bonehead” Barnett journey to the State of Chihuahua in North-Central Mexico for a proposed showdown against the legendary Tarahumara runners.  Will the race ever see the light of day?  Can this motley crew of U.S. runners compete with the Raramuri, if indeed they decide to participate in Caballo’s proposed ultra marathon? Can McDougall complete the fifty-plus miles of mountainous terrain in the scorching heat to earn his first ultra finish?

Seeing as I had already talked with participants of this event and read reports on websites and in magazines, the race results were somewhat anti-climactic. However, in contrast to the earlier chapters, McDougall succeeds in weaving a believable account of the race and shares many attention-grabbing anecdotes that I had not previously heard about.

Born to Run is not only the story of the Tarahumara and Caballo’s race.  The author also offers a few chapters detailing studies in evolutionary anthropology.  The banter between the leading scientific minds provides a clever intermission from McDougall’s race report and a startling insight into the human body.  These witty professors share their expertise in explaining “The Running Man” theory and how the human body was built to run astonishingly long distances and conclude: “You don’t stop running because you get old.  You get old because you stop running…”

I recently participated in the Iroquois 100 Mile Run in the Finger Lakes region of New York.  A couple of weeks prior to the race, an announcement on the event’s website revealed that Christopher McDougall would be the guest speaker at the carbo-load dinner.  This was an unexpected surprise and I looked forward to hearing him speak.  During his talk, Chris further explained the anthropology and evolution of running, specifically how persistence hunting contributed in closing the gap between the younger runner and the more senior athlete. He also shared theories explaining how as the distance gets longer, the more competitive women are in our sport. Christopher tipped his hat to the ultra running community and suggested ways our sick planet can learn from these people, and the Tarahumara, with their positive outlook on life. An advocate for minimalist footwear, McDougall was touched that someone who makes his living selling shoes would invite him to speak at his event.  This, he said, was the perfect example of how ultra runners exude open-mindedness.

In Born to Run, Christopher McDougall is relentless in his attacks against the running shoe industry. He firmly believes that shoes cause more harm than good. In my opinion, his criticism is to some extent substantiated, however McDougall focuses on taking shots on only one shoe company in particular, instead of attacking the industry as a whole. This shoddy journalism is unfortunate in an otherwise informative study.  Reading Christopher McDougall’s book may not prompt you to thrust aside all your shoes and do your running like Ted McDonald, but it could most certainly inspire you to lead a healthier lifestyle and make you realize that indeed, we were born to run.