Born To Run?

I read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall this week. I’d been reading this book in bits and pieces for a long time. Finally, few pages in I began to enjoy the book.

The book is about running and life. I am a bad bad runner. My legs get searing pain whenever I try to run for more than 100 meters. And reading about people running 100+ miles in a day, made me think this book was a work of fiction. The second I read 100+ miles, I opened Wikipedia and cross checked it. It still took me some time to believe what was written in the book was true.

I’d heard a lot about walking. My 98 years old great grandpa could walk miles even in that ripe age. But running is altogether a different ball game. And the book, it does justice to the sports that is running. It talks about a Mexican tribe called Tarahumara(also real), who can run non stop for two days. Two days. And cover hundreds of miles in these two days. I compared that to the 1000 steps that I take in a day, and my Google Fit congratulates me on that.

The book basically supports the barefoot movement that has begun in recent years. In India it’s pretty common to walk barefoot inside the house, and walking barefoot on morning grass is common as well. But running, again is a different monster. But the book is written so well, you’d almost want to run as you are reading it.

You’d marvel at the strength of the ultramarathoners mentioned in the book, will be awed by Tarahumaras and would die to try out pinole for once. I was thinking to start eating non vegetarian for a balanced diet, and reading about the food habits of Tarahumara, I might now skip dairy as well, living on plants based staples easily available in India.

But the most interesting part for me in the book was, one of the last parts, where author delves into evolution of humans as a running machine. The author takes experience of a person who practised ancient art of persistence hunting with nomadic tribes of Kenya, and was I thrilled to read about it.

We humans ran for our evolution. We owe running everything we have. Running is the only form of sports where peak age starts from 19, reaching it’s height at 27, and slowly degrading and finally ending at the age of sixty-four.

The book made me think about my notions that I can’t run. I find running painful. But if people can run 100 miles, I certainly can run few. After all running helps us keep young, free of diseases and happy. It made me realise I still love anything related to history, including paleontology. I am hoping to start running soon, and finish the challenge of running a half marathon this year.

We don’t stop running when we get old, we get old when we stop running.

To good books and life!