Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

6 reviews

barefootsierra's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Racism, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

ashwaar's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring fast-paced

3.75

Born to Run is a hybrid non-fiction of investigative journalism, a journey to self-discovery and an exploration of the evolution of modern running. I love reading non-fiction about topics I previously knew nothing about and I found the chapters on ultramarathons and the development of the running shoe to be pretty interesting. But I found the writing style to be quite dramatic and exaggerated like McDougall expects everyone else to be as automatically passionate and flabbergasted by these running discoveries as he is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, and Colonisation

meganpbell's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

This pasty nerd never thought she’d be hanging on to every word of a book about long distance running! That’s how riveting, joyful, meaningful, inspiring, and fun this book about racing, community, physiology, prehistory, and the world’s greatest runners—the indigenous Tarahumara—is. A modern classic published nearly 15 years ago, the science here may be dated in places (including fatphobia), but it remains an important, beloved book sure to have you running out the door, Nikes on or no!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

euphemiajo's review

adventurous challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Cursing

drewhowerton's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring medium-paced

3.25

I do plan to start running again :) This is a decently good book. I don’t want to be mean I know this was the adventure of a lifetime for McDougall and he must’ve loved writing this book. That said, I could’ve gotten what I wanted out of it in a book less than half the length. If you can get past his subtle misogyny and racism (grace for the older white guy in the 2000s), you may enjoy this. 

In my opinion, he goes on wayyy too long telling stories about people whose names I can’t remember and am not particularly invested in. 

On the good side, if you can get through all of the above, there is some great stuff about how we really are born to run. And the mentality of an ultra-runner. 

If you want a SPOILER of some of the best info without reading the book, here you go:
- barefoot style is better. Go minimalist. Comfort and cushion and raised heals are marketing 
- our ancestors ran down animals until they died, and that’s why we lived. It’s in our DNA to run casually for hours
- eat lots of chia seeds and probably beans
- lose your long, clunky, heel-strike, bounding strides. Get quick, light, short, easy steps. Bent knees, straight back, land over your foot, toes flicking up under you back toward your butt
- embrace the pain. Get outside yourself. Enjoy the journey.

Though this wasn’t my favorite book to read the entire time, I’m grateful for what I got out of it. And it sounds like these folks ran one hell of a race. Like I said, I will start running again!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Racism, Blood, and Alcohol

ziracook's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Blood