The book “Born To Run” by Christopher McDougall is an inspiring story researching man’s natural ability to run and explores the author’s journey across the world in pursuit of one of the most common questions asked by runners today. “Why do my feet hurt?” This book’s intended audience is anyone who has interest in the sport of distance running and either wants to start running or has been running for a while and are trying to avoid injury. Throughout the course of the book, it goes over much of the science of distance running and why humans really are born to run as well as certain things that may be holding runners back from achieving their goals. The author explains these scientific concepts while also describing his thrilling adventure across …show more content…
Minimalist running shoes being those meant to replicate the feeling of running barefoot in a safer, more protected form. However, I realized that further research from a separate source would be needed before I submitted to drastic action. From this research it was discovered that although there may be many benefits for the privileged runner who can make the transition to barefoot running there are also many downsides to it as well. A little background information on barefoot running, the whole concept of it has been that running shoes promote a heel strike running form with their cushion which is very hard on the knees and by taking off the shoes a perfect forefoot strike is automatically achieved. (Seen in Figure 1. on next page) The book describes this very persuasively when talking about Caballo Blanco, a runner who traveled into the Copper Canyons, learning the Tarahumara ways. “He got rid of his running shoes and began wearing nothing but sandals… By his third year, Caballo was tackling trails that were invisible to the non-Tarahumara eye. With butterflies in his stomach, he’d push himself over the lip of jagged descents that were longer, steeper, and more serpentine than any black diamond ski-run. He’d slip, scramble, sprint downhill for miles, barely in control, relying on his canyon honed reflexes but still awaiting the pop of a knee cartilage, the rip of a hamstring, the fiery burn of a torn Achilles tendon he knew was coming any second. But it never came.” (McDougall page 110) After all this information, barefoot running seems too good to be true; and if only that was it. But the downsides of this style of running can’t be ignored; because although a forefoot strike does reduce the impact on your knees, when running barefoot on hard surfaces like cement or