What a great book! The author has the ability to spin a wonderful nonfiction yarn! The characters are so endearing and uplifting. If you like to run...at all, you will like this book. If you like to read fun and lively nonfiction...you will like this book. If you are fascinated by indigenous cultures...you will like this book. History of ultra running, the running shoe, Leadville 100, Tarahumara Tribe, and a crazy gringo named Caballo Blanco. Yippeeeeeeeeeee!Publisher Description:
An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America's best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall's incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Publisher's description:
When Chris McDougall agreed to take in a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. But when he arrived, Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman's body, but to heal his mind as well. It turns out, the best way to soothe a donkey is to give it a job and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run. He'd heard about burro racing -- a unique type of race out west where humans and donkeys run together in a call-back to mining days. In the course of Sherman's training, Chris would have to recruit several other runners, both human and equine, and call upon the wisdom of burro racers, goat farmers, Amish running club members, and a group of irrepressible female long-haul truckers. Along the way, he shows us the life-changing power of animals, nature, and community.
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