Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

totally awesome book.. can't wait to read it again!

I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Read it if you haven't

I have congrol malacia in my right knee, I have been working to build up my running will this book help and does it give enough information that a layman can apply these techniques? 

Heard a lot about it, too, and am reading it now.

You are so organized.  Impressive.

I can't wait to read this book - I'm actually number 94 of something like 114 holds on the book at the public library.
I've heard great things, but apparently so have 100 or so of my neighbors.

I'm waiting for this to come out in paperback.

I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook !! the story is easy to listen to and the narrator is great.

It is a great book! Enjoy it!

Yup, great audio book. Took it out on a few runs and it was actually inspiring ;-)... Ok I was runnnig 3 miles instead of 50... but inspiring none the less.

yep...GREAT book.  Have read it twice...so far.  Tried and then switched entirely to running in Vibram 5 fingers because of the info in this book.  Good Stuff!

I think the book has a lot of interesting material, but the science on the shoes sounds a little doubtful. Reviews of the book actually lie about the results of the Swiss study on 4000+ male runners. Here's the original paper:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3381988

"In 33 to 44 year olds (N = 1,757), the number of years of running was inversely related to incidence of injuries (P = 0.02). Injuries were not significantly related to race running speed, training surface, characteristics of running shoes, or relative weight."

Barefoot running is still an interesting concept and well worth trying. It'll probably help some and hurt others. I tried walking barefoot to work up to running barefoot and it just aggravated my achilles tendonosis (didn't know it was that at the time). I'd even bought injinji socks and a can of spray-on plasticene to make my own cheapo running soles like this guy!

http://ardydub.blogspot.com/2006/05/running-socks-my-previous-post.html

Any change in running style... will take a very long time to do safely.  So going from cushioned shoes with healstrike run to VFF shoes will be a big jump.  The shoes will make you strike more midfoot or even slightly forefoot and this will be a big mechanical change for your running.  Your heal will actually be a half inch to an inch lower in making contact with the ground and you will use more calf muscle on impact rather than taking up the shock with your heal, knee and hip.  So in escense you are stretching the back muscles of your leg a half inch to 1 inch with ever stride.  That stretching can cause some problems if not done super gradually. 

It is different to have run barefoot all your life than to convert to it in your 40s.  There are a number of studies that basically show that the cushy shoes lead to injury and that the cheaper less cushy shoes are better.  I haven't taken the time to evaluate the quality of the studies.  The problem is that most of the studies are correlational and do not control for a lot of the variables that need to be explained before any defininitive decision can be made.  Some folks imply that shoe manufacturers have known this all along, but have ignored it in an effort to make more $$ from more cushioned, supportive shoes.  It would be nice if someone did some real tightly controled research on the topic, but the people who make money off shoes probably wouldn't pay for it. 

K now off to read the above paper to watch it contradict me 8).

Edited by Baowolf 2009-10-08 11:48 AM

Trishie, thanks for posting about this book.  I got it on Friday and today was my first time out running after getting into the book.  It was the best running experience I've had in ages (maybe since I was a teenager). 

I agree with Baowolf, that you can't switch to barefoot running overnight (nor did I try to!).  I just went out with my neutral, somewhat cushioned running shoes, but I've got to say, it was a different and far better keeping in mind some of the anecdotal lessons from the book.  I focused on shorter strides, faster cadence, straight back - easy, light, smooth.  Similar pace to my last run of a similar distance (although I didn't check the pace until I was done), but with a lower heart rate, and when I was done, I felt great - if I didn't have to get back to work, I felt like I could have gone out again!

x2. This sums it up nicely. It provides some great insight into barefoot or minimal shoe running. Once you're done and have enjoyed it you can start reading sites such as Barefoot Bob's and get some guidance on switching.

There have been several of these threads with similar kudo's for the book. Has anyone read it, researched barefoot running and found it to be -worse- than boot running?

Ok, I am sold.  It will be my audio bok purchase this month!

My only complaint with the book was that I couldn't put it down. Reading until 2am doesn't help with getting up for the early morning workouts.

just saw word of This for those of you in the Seattle area!


Seattle Running Company proudly presents
a run, slideshow, and talk with
Caballo Blanco
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Run begins at 6pm, slideshow & talk at 7pm.

i just might have to go!

The book is at home waiting for me to finish the last 30 pages tonight.   I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far, and I agree with a previous poster:  My run today was AWESOME.    Focussed on turnover and standing up straight, two of my biggest running "problems." 

I felt great and am definitely interested in looking into some VFFs or other minimal shoe.   So much of the book just "clicked" with me.   I'm in the early stages of trying to SLOWLY increase my run volume, and am extremely interested in whatever I can do to stay injury-free!  I've suffered 2 injuries during my previous 2 attempts at building mileage, so it is good encouragement to see that it CAN be done.

Yeah, he's coming to our local running shop too.  I loved the book, but McDougal made Micah True (Caballo Blanco) sound like some mysterious figure who never comes out of the canyon and is nearly impossible to find.  Turns out the guy has his own web site and is on tour.  Not really a criticism, but just kinda' funny.