A review by peter__b
Running with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn
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.