Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

304 Pages

“If you don't have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain't getting them.” 

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

“You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.” 

        This book will make you want to run.  Christopher emerged himself in this world of super athletes, ultra-marathons and long distance running, and drags you along with him.  He focuses on a couple of notable long distance runners whose personalities are as strange as the distances they run, and we're not talking tens of miles, more like hundreds. He speaks of a race between the world's greatest long distance runners centering around a group who lives away from civilized society, and have  for the majority of their history.  Another theme that McDougall focuses on is how humans are meant to run, and why every person should take advantage of this given skill.  This is the aspect of the book that reels you in and motivates you to start running on your own, because who are you to ignore your inherited skill. He delves into the the running shoe market and explains why the simpler the better, and more often cheaper as well. I read this book during my indoor track season of Sophomore year in high school, the time when running, primarily distance running, became an important part of my life.  I don't owe this entire realization to this book, but it certainly discredited any doubt I had that running was an integral part of who I was. If you run already and read this book, I can almost guarantee that you'll find more motivation and reason when you're out on the road. If you don't already run, you'll feel the urge to. 4/5