• Born to Run

  • A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
  • By: Christopher McDougall
  • Narrated by: Fred Sanders
  • Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (19,889 ratings)

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Born to Run  By  cover art

Born to Run

By: Christopher McDougall
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run.” —Outside Magazine

Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

©2009 Knopf (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Compelling. . . . Entertaining. . . . [McDougall] uses an extended portrait of one of the world's least known cultures, the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyons, to put modern American running under an exacting magnifying glass.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history. . . . [McDougall] seeks to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara the old-fashioned way: He tracks them down. . . . The climactic race reads like a sprint. . . . It simply makes you want to run.”—Outside Magazine

“Hugely entertaining. . . . One of the most joyful and engaging books about running to appear for many years.”—The Irish Times

Featured Article: 55+ Quotes for Whenever You Need a Little Encouragement


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What listeners say about Born to Run

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Great listen

Very informative book. So much information on running. Be careful it puts a desire to run in your soul!

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An excellent book

“Born to run” is an excellent book and one of a few I can’t wait to listen to again. I am very much into self hep books but I usually never read/listen to a book more than once. Yet I simply fell in love with “Born to run”.

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Loved every minute, well almost.

Sad that it had to end honestly what a riveting and engaging story, I loved every minute and recommend it to anyone even people not interested in running it’s just a good story.

My only gripe is the little vegan / vegetarian rant it went on for a chapter or so, it would have been perfect had it not tried to advocate for that.

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great book

great book on running and you will learn a little about running shoes. Good 👍

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Not just for Superathletes

very engaging! much more than just running! thoroughly enjoyed the history and people involved.

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great story, great narration

The story is super well written, and the narration is the best one I've heard in audible so far. I almost cried at the end, when he describes the final race.

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Excellent and inspiring.

This book is an inspiring story of the strength of both body and mind that it takes to race or just a finish and ultra event competing against your own mind more than the other runners. This will definitely be a book I give as gifts to people that I love. The power of the mind and the strength of the body only knows the limits of each other.

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good read

Read this book years ago and decided to listen to it now. Listened to it twice. highly recommend.

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Loving to run Not Needed to Love this Book

A wonderful story that successfully wanders through profound and interesting side avenues related to how we all are connected to our running past. Anthropology, marketing, the individuals thirst for accomplishment, what it means to love the essence of a difficult challenge are all explored. With fascinating side ventures the reader is never far away from the cast of characters that pursue participation in the ultimate endurance race and what is revealed about themselves and an indigenous group of ultra runners with something to teach us all.

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Read it.

GREAT story. From my shoes to way I move, I will never look at running the same way again.

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