The Steam Room

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is not just the story of an elusive Mexican tribe. It's the story of one man's search for answers that no doctors could provide. He wanted to know why running ruined his feet and was so hard on the rest of his body. He found an answer that encompassed many individual stories, physics, human evolution, and the soul of mankind. Words cannot describe how interesting and moving this book was. I loved it so much that I read portions out loud to my family. As someone who subscribes to the philosophy that I won't run unless chased, I found myself inspired to run. Barefoot.

Favorite quotes (Kindle locations):

118 "Your feet are like a minnow bucket full of sensory neurons, all of them wriggling around in search of a sensation."

150 "There's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time."

2421: "They were expected to accomplish nothing, so they could try anything. Audacity beckoned."

2917-21: "Runner in shoes that cost more than $95 were more than twice as likely to get hurt as runners in shoes that cost less than $40...for double the price, you get double the pain."

Literary Stuff: McDougall made me feel like I know more about the people he met than some people I've known for years. His descriptions of people were insightful and inspiring. He used metaphors to which I could relate, and he revealed so much about the human spirit. I loved how he wove math, science, history, and anthropology together in ways that made it interesting. I learned a lot, and I didn't feel like I was reading nonfiction. That's the best kind.

Running Update: I'm running in my Tevas. I find that my knee (which has been an issue for years) no longer bothers me and I can run more each day. I've been running for about 1.5 weeks and I've dropped another 1.5 pounds, which is awesome!