#17 ~ Born to Run

The title of one of the greatest songs ever is the same as #17 ~ Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  And this great title is not about Bruce Springsteen, but my other favorite thing...running.  A very interesting story about a tribe called the Tarahumara in Mexico who live in the Copper Canyons away from civilization and still run everywhere.  They are a mystical magical people to those in the ultra running community ~ and became a legend at the Leadville Trail 100 ~ which is just a fascinating race to me, because I can't run 3 miles at altitude...and these people run 100 [and don't die]
With asides explaining how humans are built to run and all sorts of other factoids, the main story is about a race in the Copper Canyons pitting some of the best American ultrarunners against the Tarahumara.  It's a good story...and it's amazing that people want to run 50 miles in miserable conditions...but, once again, it's that SPIRIT of 'this won't beat me' that is so appealing.

Quotes:
p9 ~ Running seemed to be the fitness version of drunk driving: you could get away with it for a while, you might even have some fun, but catastrophe was waiting right around the corner.

p44 ~ chica frescs--"chilly chia."  It's brewed up by dissolving chia seeds in water with a little sugar and a squirt of lime.

p111 ~ "This Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast.  You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad.  Thn work on light.  Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go.  When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth.  You won't have to worry about the last on--you get those three, and you'll be fast."

p124 ~ instead of cringing from fatigue, you embrace it.  You refuse to let it go.  You get to know it so well, you're not afraid of it anymore.

p168 ~ Dr. Lieberman said, "If there's any magic bullet to make human beings healthy, it's to run."

fl: For days, I'd been searching Mexico's Sierra Madre for the phantom known as Caballo Blanco--The White Horse.  ll: For a long time afterward, I could see them standing in the road, waving, until the entire town of Urique disappeared behind us in a cloud of dust.