What an amazing book. Adventure, research, human stories, and running. And racing. And 100-mile racing. I was captivated from beginning to end and immediately started listening again when I reached the end.
Starting with the simple question, why does my food hurt? The preeminent sports orthopedist in the world says it's because the human body wasn't designed for running--running is like a ticking time bond, and the more you do it, the more likely you are to be hurt. If you look at the runners around you, that's all you see--injury after injury.
Not satisfied with that answer, McDougall takes us around the world and backward through time to find the real one. And it's a doozy.
Read this book even if you're not a runner and don't aspire to be one. There's a lot more than running here.
At times--especially in the first few chapters--he was throwing around suppositions and personal conjectures like they were established fact. A few times I'd pause the narrative and think, what the heck? How did that come from that?!? He'd describe the home-made beer of the Tarahumarans as "blistering paint," which to me implied high alcohol content, but then later explain that it was extremely low in alcohol, even less than the near-bear of the depression years. They still bug me, but write them off as artistic license and slog on. He gets to the observable, measurable facts soon enough.
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