It’s hard to have a conversation around the world of ultrarunning right now and not hear about the book “Born to Run, A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” The title would seem to give you a lot of information on the book, but in reality it only scratches the surface of what this book has to offer.
The author start out as a typical, everyday runner who is beat up from all the miles logged. His visits to the doctors get him nothing more than “running is hard on your body, get a bike.” Not ready to give up he starts exploring other options so that he can continue to enjoy his passion. Through this exploration he finds there is way more about running then he could have ever imagined.
He discovers this tribe of super athletes who live deep in the wilderness of Mexico that run extremely long distances in nothing more than sandals. He uncovers nutritional secrets, the evolution of the running man, meets some interesting characters along the way and concludes that there there is way more to running than just the motion of putting one foot in front of the other. Lastly he is witness to one of the great endurance battles of the ancient vs. the present.
I cannot recommend this book enough to ultrarunners. I also can say that any person out there that has struggled with running injuries or just loves to get out and run should pick this up, you won’t be disappointed.
As a side note, I picked up the audio version of this book and put it on my MP3 player. I listened to it while putting in my daily miles on trails. I’m not sure if there is a better way to enjoy this book then like that. You can currently sign up for Audible.com for $7.50 and get one book credit that you can apply towards “Born to Run” meaning that you get the full unabridged (11 hours of audio) version of this book for $7.50… that’s pretty good!