Just read "BORN TO RUN"!!!!! WOW GREATEST BOOK EVER

It was a great read, but remember the author is a journalist, not a scientist, researcher, or exercise physiologist. He is not bound by accurate scientific representation of the many articles and summaries he presents. It’s a work of fiction, read it for enjoyment but as many other barefoot craze runners have discovered, the author plays fast and loose with the facts.

Be careful wrote:

It was a great read, but remember the author is a journalist, not a scientist, researcher, or exercise physiologist. He is not bound by accurate scientific representation of the many articles and summaries he presents. It’s a work of fiction, read it for enjoyment but as many other barefoot craze runners have discovered, the author plays fast and loose with the facts.

Don't be a hater. I ran 452 miles in my Vibram Five Fingers at a blazing 15 minute pace, and I only got shin splints once, at the 3 mile mark.

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

You might want to go back and read about others trying barefoot running since many tried it for a while and one does not hear much about it these days.

Also, not even close to greatest book ever; not even in the hunt for greatest running-related book.

Throw out your trainers and get some nike frees pronto.

There were stories about the Tarahumara Indians in late 70s Runner's World mags. McDougall didn't discover them, they've been a known entity for quite a while.

I couldn't get past my first premise in reading his book.

It is not the greatest book ever.

Someone posted about some dude running an ultra in sandals about six months ago. I tried it. Got shin splints immediately. Never ran again.

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

Make sure you have a good podiatrist in town. My experience with barefoot runs on the beach following b to r did not end happily.

Plantar Faciitis Sucks wrote:

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

Make sure you have a good podiatrist in town. My experience with barefoot runs on the beach following b to r did not end happily.

Don't ever go barefoot on the beach. People f*ck there.

I've briefly toyed with barefoot running. Here are my thoughts.

The Tarahumara went barefoot (or in Tarahumara sandals) their entire life. Their feet have been conditioned by years of running and walking to handle the stress of running barefoot. Your feet have not.

The Tarahumara ran on dirt. You will be running on pavement, which is much harder than dirt.

Bottom line is that you'll most likely get injured eventually, with the most likely injury being a metatarsal stress fracture.

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

Goatheads!

I knid of get the impression that people living in mountainous country are actually running on basically rock a lot of the time rather than dirt.

..only took you 10 years to get around to reading it ..?!

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

Clearly a troll post. I don’t think I was able to get through half of that book it was so bad. I’m truly baffled by anyone who honestly claims it was a great book.

Ultra Runner Chick wrote:

Clearly a troll post. I don’t think I was able to get through half of that book it was so bad. I’m truly baffled by anyone who honestly claims it was a great book.

Not a great book, but I thought it was a pretty entertaining story. As far as running books go, one of the more compelling ones to be sure, as long as you treat it as a work of fiction.

Neither ultra runner nor chick wrote:

Ultra Runner Chick wrote:

Clearly a troll post. I don’t think I was able to get through half of that book it was so bad. I’m truly baffled by anyone who honestly claims it was a great book.

Not a great book, but I thought it was a pretty entertaining story. As far as running books go, one of the more compelling ones to be sure, as long as you treat it as a work of fiction.

Quite compelling and entertaining book. Some outright nonsense, but good story.

His followup book followed the same model except the noble savages who kept the secrets of the ancients were the people of Crete instead of the Tarahumara and the secrets are something about fascia strength and eating high-fat low-carb instead of barefoot running and eating vegetarian. I couldn't get through that book, it was really dull and hard to follow.

Entertaining read, I enjoyed it. And behind all the BS there is a kernel of truth—running shoes are really overbuilt, and a lot of folks could benefit from a barefoot cooldown mile on grass or set of strides 1-3 times/week.

An even better read from a real scientist (and champion ultra-runner) who really gets into both the science and the joy of running is “Why We Run” by Bernd Heinrich. For my taste, that’s the best running book ever written.

Great book, but Doha is now old news. This book is ancient news.

Inspired Gal in Oklahoma wrote:

I have never felt more inspired an I am very excited to start barefoot running. Wow, what a great read. If you have not read it, I can not recommended it more! Amzing!!

This has to be a troll post. The book read like the rough draft of a John Krakauer piece (and I actually like some of his writing). Spoilers: McDougall's writing is still sophmoric at best, Micah's dead, Jurek's retired, Shelton is still a dirtbag runner at 38, and the Tarahumara are still the Tarahumara.

Also...it's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Hi hello and welcome to the ideology

I am over half Native American of central Mexico. My parents,gparents, etc were all born at 6000ft and my parents got the privilege of attending school a few miles away. They walk-jogged wearing huaraches and stufff. You might say this whole barefoot thing is pretty close to my blood.

However, being a daily runner of over 10 years (since I was in 9th grade), I gave that whole barefoot stuff a try for the better part of my career.

I was in 10-11th grade when altra released, my friend got me into them and I wore them almost exclusively until this year (2019)

Thing is, my lower leg tendons, oh boy.. junior year in college I had a little PTT pain (posterior tibialis) and it took me years to get back to where it is rarely an issue...

I grew up wearing shoes(with heels) and therefore I need those to train for fast races like 1mi-5k. As a native people we run to hunt and to message. That is in the range of 3-5+ hours of continuous “running...” to run fast like our modern day track races require- we should rather focus on keeping that form we might have had once Upon a time when were young and uninhibited by our lifestyles- mostly sedentary.. our hips are tight.. our lower legs are weak because our feet never had to support themselves... our shoulders and arms and every stretch reflex system in most of our bodies has been weakened.

Anywaaaaaays... TLDR

If you grew up wearing shoes with heels-run in shoes with heels... don’t kid urself ur gonna get injured like the rest of us