born to run is the best sports book i have ever read. i love books like this: the author weaves a variety of stories and topics together around a central narrative...it's a book about running and yet it reads like a suspenseful thriller. it's absolutely fantastic writing.
it is a book about running but it's also a book about love, passion, anthropology, biomechanics, shoes, crazy people, ultra races, joy, and what it means to be a good person. all of this information crafted and told by an expert story teller.
the most compelling part of the book to me centered around a crusty old cross country coach at adams state (in alamosa, co not too far from durango). this dude unlocked every secret of running and training from a scientific standpoint, but still felt like he was missing part of the puzzle.
coach vigil: "couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his gut kept telling him that there was some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running. the engineering was certainly the same: both depended on loosening your grip on your own desires, putting aside what you wanted and appreciating what you got, being patient and forgiving and undemanding."
later in the book the focus turns to scott jurek, the greatest american ultra-runner ever. jurek would win races and then spend hours at the finish line encouraging fellow runners and cheering people on. the author writes: "what Coach Vigil had sensed about character...Scott had been his entire life. the reason we race isn't so much to beat each other, but to be together...Scott learned that early on...other runners tried to disassociate from fatigue by blasting ipods or imagining the roar of the crowd in Olympic stadium, but Scott had a simpler method: it's easy to get outside yourself when you're thinking about someone else."
good stuff!
1 comment:
It's on my kindle!
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