At the end of January, Matthew McConaughey confirmed his role as the lead actor in the film adaptation of the national bestseller, “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.”
The book follows journalist Chris McDougall as he plummets into Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara Indians’ unique running ability. The book spent 178 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and is still selling 10,000 copies a month. But most importantly, it ignited the “barefoot running movement” in millions across the country. It changed my view on running forever.
McDougall singlehandedly caused me to change running forms and I can’t thank him enough for his tremendous book. I’ve recommended it to anybody who hasn’t read it yet. I finished tenth in a 23.4 mile trail run that changed almost 6,000 feet in elevation while landing with every step on my forefoot.
The main issue McDougall tackles is the fundamental difference between barefoot-style running over the traditional heel-strike running. So first, I’ll state the facts about heel-strike running. This is the form the majority of the public currently uses. It is when a person takes each step by landing on their heel and then rocking onto and propelling off the toe. This is the form that footwear companies have capitalized on by producing shoes with massive amounts of cushion in the heel in what’s called a large heel-toe drop or offset.
Now take off your shoes and try that same form barefoot. Without that cushion, heel-striking will not feel very good. You’ll land straight on your calcaneus, your heel bone, and have nothing to decelerate your landing. The cushion in heel-strike shoes is similar to the cushion in a football helmet.
You wouldn’t go crashing into anybody headfirst without a helmet on, but with a helmet, we feel that it’s justifiable. Yet we’ve learned that despite the most sophisticated of technology in today’s helmets, concussions still happen frequently. Helmets protect the skull, but don’t necessarily stop injuries to the brain. In comparison, traditional shoes protect your feet, but that impact still resonates up your leg causing ankle, knee and hip pain.
Barefoot running does not mean you have to run barefoot. It’s just a name for a style of running marked by landing on your midfoot or forefoot. A quick biomechanical breakdown goes like this. You land on the outside of your foot, where then your foot pronates as the inside of your foot quickly comes down as your toes sprawl out. At the same time, as you’re landing on your foot, the Achilles tendon and calf muscle are working to decelerate your body as it comes back down. Lastly, the hamstring works in conjunction with the Achilles tendon and calf to propel you back off the ground. All of this is your evolutionarily-determined body decelerating each landing naturally, rather than the artificial cushion in a shoe.
It’s the way we were born to run, it’s the way we ran as kids and it was the way you ran until your foot was planted in one of our modern day monstrosities. I have limited space to go into detail, but I can’t be more excited about McConaughey starring in the upcoming film. The book changed my life. It has impacted many others and opened the public’s eyes to barefoot running.
I’d obviously strongly recommend reading the book, but I hope that you’ll consider watching the movie when it premieres. We’ve still got some time until the release date, but you can be sure I’ll keep you updated.
