Read This: “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall --- Even If You Can’t Run 100 Miles a Day at 12,620 Feet Wearing a Cape and Sandals and a Smile

Have You Eaten Your Chia Pet Today?

I’m obsessed with this book and I’m not a runner (yet.) 

Why the obsession? 

Let me tantalize you with a couple of fascinating tidbits:

• Wacky, Wild, Crazy, FUN! Characters – from the lovely, shy, beer-swilling, magical, long-distance running Tarahumara Indians who run, oh, 60 miles daily just for fun in their flat leather sandals; to the ultra-marathoner, American trail runners with obsession in their legs & tequila in their stomachs; to the wide-eyed, loveable, clunker of a journalist turned runner trying to tell the story while also trying not to keel over. It has good guys, bad guys and loveable misfits.

• Eating Chia Pets for a Cancer Free Life – Chapter 27 blew my socks off for many reasons but this one was a biggie. Who hasn’t had their heart ripped to pieces by being a part of someone’s (or your own) battle with this hideous disease. There’s a gentle, sensible, beautiful way to live and eat that the Turahumara Indians incorporate into their being. Including eating Obama’s chia pet hair from Rite Aid. Pages 208-211. 

• Eat My Dust, Neanderthals! Why We are Actually Built to Run – sounds sorta like evolutionary mumbo-jumbo, but the author takes us to Africa to one of the last remaining Bushmen tribes who run to hunt game and survive. Obsessed scientist nearly dies keeping up with Bushmen but then has an Ah-Ha moment: “Running was the superpower that made us human – which means it’s a superpower that all humans possess.” In other words, even though it feels like crap to some of us, we were actually Born to Run.

Folks in the running community know this book already, it’s out there and it’s been read. But it’s such an incredible epic story and journey, it needs to get out to a broader group. So enjoy – read – it’s a long book with so many different things going on and so much interesting information your mind will feel excited and a little boggled. You'll need to put it down here and there just to process.

And, of course, there’s a movie in the works – so read it now! Paperback, $15.95 and it's everywhere. Let me know if you like it…. (and BIG thanks to Rosemaria for recommending!)

Namaste & Three Cheers! –A

Ps. Here are some cool, related links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadville_Trail_100

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/tarahumara-people/gorney-text

http://www.wildwatch.com/book_reviews/other-1/the-art-of-tracking-the-origin-of-science