born to run 🗺

So I finally got around reading this classic for people trying to run with not that much help from the shoe industry. Quite some years ago I repeatedly had problems with pain but once I changed to bare feet technique it was more or less gone. Around that time I also learned about this book and it has been on my to read list for a long time. This year I have made two attempts at run streaks. The first one I had to abandon because of calf pains and the second one due to getting the nasty virus that has been going around lately. This added to the inspiration and being home sick was a good time to get through this book.

So the book is vbasically the authors story about how he got interested in ultra running and after quite some time manages to run long distances once he started to train and run in a similar way to this Indian tribe - the Rarámuri. Without having any fancy shoes or eqiopment they are able to outrun the best ultra runners in the world. For the shoe industry this is bad news. The uselessness of advanced running shoes may be the main practical take away from the book. There seem to be no evidence whatever that an expensive shoe with state-of-the-art cushioning are any better than the cheapest shoe you can find. Running without shoes or with something very thin is the best way to stay away from injuries. And when you start to think about it it makes a lot of sense. For thousands of years the body has adapted to slow running. The foot and the legs are quite good at running as long as they are left to it. Introducing a shoe than the feet start to relax and don’t have to work that much anymore. They get weak and eventually injured. Before the 70s injuries from running does not exist and nowadays it is so common that most runners are injured ebery other year. A sad story all in all.

Lots of the story circles around El Caballo Blanco - a gringo that got fed up with life in the US and decided to build his own place in the Copper Canyons and spend his days running. The climax of the book is when he manages to get a bunch of hard core ultra runners to join him and some Ramahuri friends for an epic race across the canyons of the Mexican wilderness - the 50 miles Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon. Well enough about this - go and read it yourself! Highly recommended! And yes I will start a new run streak any day now when I feel recovered enough.

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

written by fredrik at 2021-05-07

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