Baby, I Was...

Since right around the beginning of the year, running has grown into a passion of mine. For years it had been nothing more than a 3-4 time a week 3 mile or so calorie burn, that allowed me to splurge a bit more at meal time. Honestly, it seemed more like work than anything else. But in the last several months it has blossomed into a near obsession, complete with training plans, training logs, mapped out routes and spreadsheet schedules that finance nerds like myself so much enjoy creating for all facets of our lives.

As a result, several people recommended that I pick up the book Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, a writer for Men's Health magazine. Prior to reading this book, I always assumed completing a marathon (or multiple marathons) was the absolute apex of a runner's life. The term "ultra marathon" meant nothing to me. I had no idea that all across the country, races of 50 or even 100 miles were being held quite frequently. I didn't know you could run 100 miles at one time without dropping dead.

McDougall does an excellent job discussing these races as well as taking a close look at why many Americans in their triple-digit costing running shoes break down on a regular basis while a virtually unknown tribe in the Copper Canyons of Mexico run literally hundreds of miles a week, injury free, in little more than sandals. This tribe, known as the Tarahumara, invisible for virtually for the history of their people, showed up one day to dominate the Leadville 100 mile race in Colorado, and then just vanished, as quickly as they appeared.

When the book starts to become a bit technical, McDougall is able to lighten it with fascinating, true stories, involving colorful characters such as, "Cabalo Blanco" and "Barefoot Ted". The book culminates with McDougall's account of, "The Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen", a grueling race through the Copper Canyons between the Tarahumara and the mysterious white people, considered the worlds greatest, brought together by Cabalo Blanco. Not only does McDougall recount the details of the race, but he also partakes in it.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is even a little bit into running. It is very likely to spark a fire within you to further pursue this sport. If you're not a runner, I'd still recommend this book just for some of the stunning tales within it. It may just inspire you to strap on the running shoes (or maybe run right out the front door barefoot....Ted would be proud).

Speaking of running...I managed to bang out 19 miles in the last 7 days. As always, I owe a lot of it to my trusty ipod (and some badly needed new headphones). Here are some ipod highlights from yesterday's six miles:

• Flobots - Handlebars
• Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven
• The Streets - Let's Push Things Forward
• The Sheila Divine - Hum
• The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
• Alice In Chains - Would?
• Smashing Pumpkins - Drown
• Garbage - Special
• Fuel - Shimmer
• Hole - Miss World

Have a great weekend, everyone.