Born to Run
2009
- tarahumara indians
- runners
- sports
- atheletes
- marathon running
- long-distance runners
- long-distance running
- running
- biography
- athletes
The story
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, is a 2009 best-selling non-fiction written by the American author and journalist Christopher McDougall.
What it’s like
Brisk, chatty and warm, like a friend leaning across a café table to tell you about the best trip they ever took. The prose is conversational and full of gleeful digression, moving from the sun-baked canyons of Mexico's Copper Canyons to ultramarathon starting lines, dusty trail-running shops and cramped lab rooms where scientists argue about shoes. Sensory detail arrives in quick, vivid snatches: thin mountain air, corn-tortilla dinners, the slap of bare feet on rock, the crowd noise of a race village at dawn. The vibe is upbeat, curious and mildly obsessive, with an underlying ache for simpler, more human ways of moving. Its arc follows an injured, skeptical runner slowly won over by a reclusive tribe and the joy of running for its own sake. It reads well on a long-haul flight, during a lazy weekend, or as a motivating read before a training block. Intensity is low: there is some hardship, a few injuries and a brief, nonviolent contest of endurance, with no gore and no sexual content. It suits readers who love sports writing, eccentric characters and big-hearted adventure.
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