Life is an ultramarathon

I've just finished reading "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christpher McDougall, as recommended by Jon. I have to say I didn't get caught immediately into the story, as the start seemed a bit too random to be true but too slow for a fiction. But once I got into it, I couldn't let the book down!



The story line is build upon the succession of events leading to the first Tarahumara long-distance race where some Gringos were invited. The Tarahumara live in the Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexio, and are well-known for their superior abilities in long-distance running. In fact, running is still an essential part of their lifestyle. This frame allows the author to bring together a large number of facts and anecdotes about ultrarunning that are more or less related to the race. Those include for example famous runners, (Emil Zápotek, Ann Trason, Scott Jurek, ...), coaches, sport scientists, and mythic races (Leadville 100, Badwater, ...).

The book is clearly on the same line as "Survival of the fittest" (Mike Stroud), as they both argue that the human is designed to run, and our current lazy lifestyle is the cause of a large number of diseases. Although both authors are keen on anecdotes, McDougall writes in a much more colloquial American style compared to Stroud's doctoral British English. Their approaches differ significantly as well: rather than scientific and teleologic evidence, we're provided with a converging beam of examples. Furthermore, while "Survival of the fittest" argued that the human body was designed to run, the key contribution from "Born to run" is to precise that it is designed to run barefoot.

Indeed, the Tarahumara run in extremely thin sandals and don't seem to get into any trouble without protective cushioning and motion control technologies. Barefooting is advocated throughout the book through the voice of Barefoot Ted, a barefooting/Vibram Five Finger aficionado. The logic is quite simple: the human have been running for millions of years without shoes, and running in cushioned shoes alters the natural stride, leading to problems that may even never have occurred otherwise, and that might need to be compensated further...

To be read again!

Ultra I-want-to-go-running book

A couple of weeks ago (time flies these days) I've attended a lecture by Sir Ranulph Fiennes at the Royal Geographical Society. In short Ran was a polar explorer but lately attempted Everest twice, climbed Eiger north face (as an attempt to cure his vertigo) and ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents... and all that after a coronary bypass following a heart attack. In other words, it was a pretty motivational conference, giving loads of good ideas ;) . But also showing that willingness can overcome pretty much everything...


After the lecture, as I was asking for an autograph, Ran realised I was French and started to tell me (in French) about his French ancestor Eustache Fiennes emigrating to England along with the Norman invasion. Indeed his family used to live in the eponym village in the North of France. He surprised me a bit as he mentioned that his ancestor actually killed the English King Harold II at Hastings. It is assumed that he was wounded and/or killed by an arrow in his eye, but Ran suggested that his opportunistic ancestor used the occasion to finish him off with a large axe. That somehow reminded me a bit of Capitaine Haddock talking about his ancestor the Knight François de Hadoque.

Ultra motivation.

Yesterday, I read Coureurs Solitaires (Solitary Runners) by Franck Braine. It's a novel about ultra, so I felt like reading the 270 pages in one go to get properly into it ;)

This is the story of a truly crazy race in an apocalyptic, post nuclear war future. Most of the Earth surface has been swept off. The Race consists of running days in the desert, in bogs and in the mountains. Runners get their "road-book" at the control points every 500km or so. Therefore, the route and final destination are unknown at the beginning, and the runners need to adapt to the changing conditions during The Race.
Running is not all, competitors need a lot of surviving skills in agressive and isolated environments to finish the race alive. This is even more essential from the third day on, as runners got the right to kill their opponents (without firearms, though...). Team building is encouraged to face troubles, although extremely risky as your mates will soon or later necessarily turn into competitors.
Due to an efficient world-wide 3D broadcasting of The Race deployed by a totalitarian government, the winner is entitled to become a sort of God. The previous winner is competing again this year. He's making a team with a feline-like woman. I can't tell you much more without spoiling the story ...
Most of the characters seem quite real, with human motivations you can sometimes identify with, although maybe not to the same extend. Runners seem to be powered by some sort of primitive instincts such as hate, love, vengance or domination. The book is quite easy reading, but intense. The more the story goes on, the more you feel like putting energy and speed in the reading, as if you wanted to run faster.


Unfortunately for you, my dear English reader, this book is only available in its original French version.

Ultra novel.