Book: Born to Run

Notes on the book that is changing my outlook page by page.

I’ve just passed half way, but already this book has really been changing my perspective on running and I see my mentality when I am out there evolving to a better place than it has ever been before. I want to be good at this and I want to enjoy it. Running is a pleasure, not a chore. I find myself no longer wanting to get something from it, but instead to put as much as I can into it and improving.

You had to love running, or you wouldn’t live to love anything else. And like everything else we love – everything we sentimentally call our “passions” and “desires” – it’s really an encoded ancestoral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We’re all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known. –Dr. Vigil

We were made to run and when we first learned to run nothing could slow us down. We wanted to do everything as fast as we possibly could, then society told us to slow it down, so we did and lost that first love. Is it possible that people could return to the first love?

It wasn’t just how to run; it was how to live, the essence of who we were as a species and what we’re meant to be… Perhaps all our troubles – all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can’t overcome – began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way. –Dr. Vigil

There is so much shit in the world. When I go for a run, I let out a lot of the frustrations I face each day and spend time processing the difficult situations in my life. What if everyone took that time each day, considered the joy of leaving all hardships behind and running for the hills? Is it possible that there could be so much less of the evils in our world? Slow people down from making rash decisions by teaching them to run, to love to run, and taking that time to look at life from a distance.

How to Get There: Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad…Make it effortless, like you don’t give a shit how high the hill is or how far you’ve got to go. When you’ve practiced that so long you forget that you are practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. Don’t worry about the last one – you get those three and you’ll be fast.

Of course that is easier said than done in the eyes of a non-runner. But I urge you – it is possible.

Eat as though you were a poor person.

I’m not entirely sure how to explain that, but it makes a lot of sense. We’ve caused more dietary problems for ourselves through progress than we have solutions. A return to our roots certainly could do us some good.

They were expected to accomplish nothing, so they could try anything. Audacity beckoned. –Jenn & Billy

Think you can’t do it? Perfect. If you and everyone else expect to accomplish nothing in giving running a try, you can try ANYHTING and you’ll exceed your expectations guaranteed.

Think about it. And if you're that kind of person, READ IT.

You are tougher than you think you are and you can do more than you think you can.

More to come…