Book Report: Born to Run

If you run and have yet to read this book, you should.  The stories are fantastic, the "characters" are nearly unbelievable, and the writing is journalistic and induces rapid page turning.

I still wear shoes to run.

I do not believe we should toss all our technology in order to get back to the basics.  In Scott Jurek's book he discusses the need to find balance in our embrace of old traditions and the information based technology we can use to learn more about our running.  While it is great that people who have never worn shoes are able to run great distances without modern running shoes, I am not one of those people. 

I do have a few pairs of minimalist shoes and they hurt my feet. However, the form that I have learned by using them makes my stride more efficient and comfortable while I wear my supportive running shoes.  There is much to learn from other people and their heritage, however the fetish of barefoot running is just that.

The Tarahumara wore shoes that they had.  Their existence is hard and most people don't want it.  I have no interest in living in a cave in the Mexican desert. Anyone reading this blog and saying otherwise is either lying or crazy. This not a judgement on their choice to live this way, but it isn't for me.  I can take pieces of their story and change parts of my running...but beyond that I am lost at the drive to ditch our shoes.

Look at all the elite runners. All wear shoes when racing.  Many didn't wear shoes when they are kids...but all wear shoes when adults.  I just can't get my head around it.

All that said, I liked the story and the book was great.

4.75 out of 5 stars. 

(For those keeping count, I made my goal of 10 books in a year. This was one of the best New Year's resolutions I have ever made.)