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evamadera1's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book especially once I got past the notion (which the title invites) that the purpose of the book was to find out what makes the Kenyans such great distance runners. While that is a big part of the book (Finn temporarily moves to Kenya to train with the Kenyans because he's fascinated by their dominance at distance events) it is not the overall purpose of the book. Finn wrote (I believe) this book as a way to chronicle his journey. I loved that. (It doesn't hurt that I'm in an "completely-head-over-heels-in-love-with-running" phase right now either.)
Additionally, I loved the narrator's British accent.
There are no great secrets to be discovered in this book. If that's what you're looking for, this isn't the book for you. If you simply want to read all you can about running, this is definitely the book for you.
Additionally, I loved the narrator's British accent.
There are no great secrets to be discovered in this book. If that's what you're looking for, this isn't the book for you. If you simply want to read all you can about running, this is definitely the book for you.
jcronk's review
4.0
The author moves his family from England to Kenya and he trains for a marathon, meets various Kenyan record-holders, and tries to find out the secret to Kenya's dominance in racing. The story is interesting and entertaining, and it's not a surprise that there is no "secret" (spoiler alert: hard work, a way out of poverty, a cultural interest in running, and a higher degree of physical activity on a regular basis than people in more developed nations is the "secret").
The characters in the memoir are pretty well-drawn, and he makes it clear that they're not better runners because they are "closer to nature" or anything like that, which is great. His experience in Kenya was privileged, because he's white and has the means to do what he did, and he acknowledges this. Overall an enjoyable read.
The characters in the memoir are pretty well-drawn, and he makes it clear that they're not better runners because they are "closer to nature" or anything like that, which is great. His experience in Kenya was privileged, because he's white and has the means to do what he did, and he acknowledges this. Overall an enjoyable read.
peter__b's review
3.0
It's pretty easy to write a book with runners as your target audience. We'll pretty much eat up anything that's competently written and which has some decent information about the topic of running. And that's pretty much what you get here. An above-average runner uproots his family to go to Kenya in an effort to find out why these Kenyans are so damn quick over long distances. It's really more of a diary/travelogue of his time there and less a scientific examination of the running elite, although there are a few tidbits on the how and why of the topic.
It has its issues though. From a story perspective, it gets a bit repetitive with him doing a lot of travelling and running with different people, often easily making friends despite the language and culture differences. We get a few opinions from a number of people on the topic of the Kenyans' impressive running abilities, but that's as in-depth as it got. There's definitely no "secrets of the fastest people on earth" as the subtitle suggests.
The writing was decent and easy to follow, but I found the way he communicated his experiences to be a bit odd. He'd mention mannerisms or circumstances of some of the people he met, but he'd never give any more context on those aspects. This made it feel like he was either willfully ignorant or simply found the culture differences amusing. Either way, I was disappointed in his lack of insight into the culture he supposedly tried to entrench himself in.
It was still fun to listen to the story while out running myself. This is definitely not a must-read for runners, but at the same time, it's nice to hear a more considered alternative to the hype around [b:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320531983l/6289283._SX50_.jpg|6473602]. If you're a runner, you'll probably enjoy it; if you're not, then I'd advise against picking this one up.
It has its issues though. From a story perspective, it gets a bit repetitive with him doing a lot of travelling and running with different people, often easily making friends despite the language and culture differences. We get a few opinions from a number of people on the topic of the Kenyans' impressive running abilities, but that's as in-depth as it got. There's definitely no "secrets of the fastest people on earth" as the subtitle suggests.
The writing was decent and easy to follow, but I found the way he communicated his experiences to be a bit odd. He'd mention mannerisms or circumstances of some of the people he met, but he'd never give any more context on those aspects. This made it feel like he was either willfully ignorant or simply found the culture differences amusing. Either way, I was disappointed in his lack of insight into the culture he supposedly tried to entrench himself in.
It was still fun to listen to the story while out running myself. This is definitely not a must-read for runners, but at the same time, it's nice to hear a more considered alternative to the hype around [b:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320531983l/6289283._SX50_.jpg|6473602]. If you're a runner, you'll probably enjoy it; if you're not, then I'd advise against picking this one up.
skitch41's review
4.0
(Note: Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program)
For those of you who read [bc:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531983s/6289283.jpg|6473602][b:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531983s/6289283.jpg|6473602], you already know the main thrust of this book: a running enthusiast from the West gets it into his head that he wants to be better at running and travels across the globe looking for the secrets to do so. Instead, replace Mr. McDougall's Copper Canyon in Mexico with the village of Iten in Kenya. As Mr. Finn repeatedly notes, Kenyans have been the dominant force in middle and long distance running for the past few decades, winning just about any race they enter. Mr. Finn moves his young family from England to Kenya in order to train with them for a local marathon and learn what makes them so fast. But whereas Mr. McDougall comes away from his journey as a prophet of barefoot running, Mr. Finn is noncommittal about the secrets of Kenyan running, listing it as a combination of different factors working together. In fact, by the end of the book, it feels like any lessons that Mr. Finn learned from his time in Kenya have been internalized for himself and not fully shared with the reader. But don't mistake this assessment of mine as completely negative. Where this book shines in his telling of his trials training with such a fast group of talented people where he can call up a Kenyan by mistake and learn that the mistaken person still had a record-setting marathon time. Also, his tales of cross-cultural learning and the adjustments that his young family (he brings his wife, two girls, and young boy along) have to make while living in a different part of the globe are heartwarming and fascinating. And though he may internalize the secrets of Kenyan running, by the end of the book you also feel that, with enough training and dedication, you too could post a sub-three hour marathon time. Not as eye-opening as Born to Run, but still worth a look for any running enthusiasts.
For those of you who read [bc:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531983s/6289283.jpg|6473602][b:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531983s/6289283.jpg|6473602], you already know the main thrust of this book: a running enthusiast from the West gets it into his head that he wants to be better at running and travels across the globe looking for the secrets to do so. Instead, replace Mr. McDougall's Copper Canyon in Mexico with the village of Iten in Kenya. As Mr. Finn repeatedly notes, Kenyans have been the dominant force in middle and long distance running for the past few decades, winning just about any race they enter. Mr. Finn moves his young family from England to Kenya in order to train with them for a local marathon and learn what makes them so fast. But whereas Mr. McDougall comes away from his journey as a prophet of barefoot running, Mr. Finn is noncommittal about the secrets of Kenyan running, listing it as a combination of different factors working together. In fact, by the end of the book, it feels like any lessons that Mr. Finn learned from his time in Kenya have been internalized for himself and not fully shared with the reader. But don't mistake this assessment of mine as completely negative. Where this book shines in his telling of his trials training with such a fast group of talented people where he can call up a Kenyan by mistake and learn that the mistaken person still had a record-setting marathon time. Also, his tales of cross-cultural learning and the adjustments that his young family (he brings his wife, two girls, and young boy along) have to make while living in a different part of the globe are heartwarming and fascinating. And though he may internalize the secrets of Kenyan running, by the end of the book you also feel that, with enough training and dedication, you too could post a sub-three hour marathon time. Not as eye-opening as Born to Run, but still worth a look for any running enthusiasts.
wout's review
4.0
The secret is that there is no secret, just a myriad of helpful cultural and environmental factors of which not a single one is the driving force. Definitely, this book has helped me put the recent breaking of the two hour marathon limit in a certain perspective. Mr. Kipchoge is definitely a product of his surroundings and culture, as we all are. However, now it is clear what drove him to make these claims and put everything on the line to make it so. Most of all it was a great travel story and it enthusiasts me to head down south there once myself.
heylauralou's review
5.0
This is one of my favorite books that I read this year. It was about running and I am not a runner but I found myself interested in the “secrets” of Kenyan running and invested in the author’s training quest. I wish he had shared more about his family living in Kenya. He mentioned them a few times but I would have liked even more. Great book for runners or people who love travel and adventures.
plexippa's review
4.0
The city's comedians have been out writing signs. One says: WHAT ARE YOU ALL RUNNING FROM? Another says: YOU'VE GOT GREAT STAMINA. CALL ME. 1-834-555-8756. Yet another reads: IN OUR MINDS, YOU'RE ALL KENYANS.
In the world of distance running, athletes from a single country have been getting a lot of attention over the last several years. The East African nation of Kenya has produced some of the fastest runners on the planet. English journalist - and runner - Adharanand Finn wanted to find out what the Kenyan secret was, so he packed up himself, his wife, and their three young children and moved the family to a village in Kenya. There, he met runners. He interviewed them, he observed them, and he trained with them. Through it all, he puzzled over what element could be the key to the success of Kenyan runners (genetics? diet? culture?), and he wondered whether it was possible to improve his own distinctly non-Kenyan performance.
I am a big fan of the whole "quirky memoir" genre, in which the author tries out some experience and writes about it. Through Finn, I got to explore Kenya and take a peek inside the lives of runners whose names I see all over the running magazines. I enjoyed the easy, conversational tone of the first-person present-tense narration. Each chapter is headed with a small black-and-white photograph of people or events discussed in the book. This is not a book to help you improve your own running times, or even really one that thoroughly explores every facet of Kenyan running (a subject of academic research in its own right). It is an enjoyable tale of what one man's attempt to understand what it means to be a Kenyan runner.
In the world of distance running, athletes from a single country have been getting a lot of attention over the last several years. The East African nation of Kenya has produced some of the fastest runners on the planet. English journalist - and runner - Adharanand Finn wanted to find out what the Kenyan secret was, so he packed up himself, his wife, and their three young children and moved the family to a village in Kenya. There, he met runners. He interviewed them, he observed them, and he trained with them. Through it all, he puzzled over what element could be the key to the success of Kenyan runners (genetics? diet? culture?), and he wondered whether it was possible to improve his own distinctly non-Kenyan performance.
I am a big fan of the whole "quirky memoir" genre, in which the author tries out some experience and writes about it. Through Finn, I got to explore Kenya and take a peek inside the lives of runners whose names I see all over the running magazines. I enjoyed the easy, conversational tone of the first-person present-tense narration. Each chapter is headed with a small black-and-white photograph of people or events discussed in the book. This is not a book to help you improve your own running times, or even really one that thoroughly explores every facet of Kenyan running (a subject of academic research in its own right). It is an enjoyable tale of what one man's attempt to understand what it means to be a Kenyan runner.