Christopher McDougall, Author of Born to Run, To Visit Gear West

To claim Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run is a popular read among runners would be a serious understatement. McDougall tells a fantastic story about the running secrets of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon. This story alone is enough to read the book. But, it's one of their secrets has had a huge and dare I say controversial impact on the running community – that, according to McDougall, running with minimalist shoes or barefoot (or in the case of the Tarahumara, in sandals) is the key to enjoyable and injury free longevity. Since then, countless coaches, shoe companies, and runners have weighed in on the topic. So you want to join the discussion?

Here’s your chance.

Gear West and The Bookcase are hosting Christopher McDougall to the Gear West Store in Long Lake on Wednesday, September 15th at 6:30 in the evening. The store is located at 1786 West Wayzata Boulevard. Tickets are only $5.00 and are available at either Gear West or The Bookcase.

Check it out and see what all the fuss is about!

Wait Another Week, Drew

Following up on Drew's post, next week Dr. Paul Langer (podiatrist) will be giving a talk at Marathon Sports about minimalist running. Here is the information from the Marathon Sports website:

"Dr. Paul Langer will be in our store NEXT THURSDAY, March 25th at 7pm to talk about barefoot and minimalist running. Let us know you are coming by emailing rsvpATmarathonrunwalkDOTcom. Please put "barefoot" in the subject line."

I need a big old piece of wood to knock on here, but I have been relatively injury-free running-wise over the years. I've had to take a month off here or there for an overuse injury of some kind, but for whatever reason I've been fortunate. However, like Drew I was curious about running with less cushion and support. I remember the shoes from the late 70s and early 80s and how little support they had.

I read Born to Run with a somewhat closed mind. Buying running shoes six to eight times a year is expensive, not altogether earth friendly, but it has kept me healthy. If it ain't broke, don't fix it right? So to get to the point where I do wonder if I should get back to toughening up my feet and legs, speaks to how convincing the book was.

For now, I will stick to my Asics 3010s, but I will hold onto them longer. Rather than ditch them the first mile they start to feel flat, I will keep them for easy run days. My experiment with all this will end there and will therefore obviously be a lot less interesting than Drew's.