Leave No Tracks...September 2009

Leave No Tracks


I’ve been running for a lot of years, and it is one of my passions. The problem is that, like a lot of runners with lots of miles on the odometer, I’m constantly battling injuries.

On more than one occasion I have been told by a doctor to give up the thought of running another marathon. The first time was 76 marathons ago; the most recent was this past Boston Marathon, my 33rd consecutive and 86th total.

Having reduced my running to two or three times per week, I’ve relied on alternative training to keep in shape, but I would still like to run more, run faster, and run farther. I want to run like I did twenty years ago! Of course, that’s an impossible dream. Or is it?

I just read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall. This is a “must read” book that just might change everything we think we know about running.

McDougall sets out to learn why, despite the vast amount of sports medicine research and product development by running shoe companies, 8 out of 10 runners suffer a running injury every year.

After reading of a 55 year old Indian runner from an obscure tribe in Mexico who won a 100 mile trail race in the Rockies wearing a tunic and a pair of flimsy leather sandals, he decided to study this tribe of legendary runners.

The resulting book is a fascinating combination of the tale of the amazing runners of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons, anthropologic research, and running science. Once you start this book, you’ll have a hard time putting it down.

McDougall’s intense desire to learn the ways of the Tarahumara leads him on a life changing adventure that opens his eyes to the true spirit of man’s natural abilities as runners. Armed with the knowledge he gained from studying this ancient tribe, he back tests the spirit with science and history. The result is an eye opening story that is funny, inspiring, and masterfully told.

The Tarahumara’s way of life is centered on running – long distance running – running longer than a marathon for days on end from a very early age throughout their lives. Their footwear is simple leather sandals, and they run with a contentment that contrasts with the grimace we sometimes see on the faces of our runners.

McDougall seeks to learn to run with the same free spirit and joy. His first lesson is to run quietly – to leave no tracks. How is that possible?

Well, it appears that we’ve been lead down the wrong path by the running shoe industry! Armed with anthropologic research and current sports medicine science, it appears that our reliance on heel to toe running is contrary to the way we’ve evolved.
Consider this. If you jumped off a wall, would you land on your heels?

McDougall takes us back to the moment it all changed. Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, is the villain. After training with the legendary New Zealand coach, Arthur Lydiard, in 1962 (prior to that he had no running experience!), Bowerman became a running convert and wrote the best selling book, Jogging.

While Lydiard advocated barefoot running, Bowerman decided he could “improve on nature” and make a buck by creating a shoe that would allow a runner to extend his stride by hitting heel first. The result was the first Nike running shoe, the Cortez, followed by the Nike Waffle Trainer – my first running shoe! The more significant result was a trail of injured runners.

I won’t spoil the full tale that McDougall weaves, but I will say that the implication for us runners is that, with proper technique, we can run forever, we can run long, and we can run with the contented smiles that the Tarahumara wear.

Read the book. After more than 33 years of running and being told I need to think about doing less, it has changed my outlook. I’m wearing that contented smile, trying to emulate the techniques described in the book, and I believe that my best running lies ahead.

I did a barefoot out and back run on the beach today. On the way back, I looked for my footprints. I could barely find them. Maybe I’m on the right track.