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Christopher McDougall

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Famous Christopher McDougall Quotes

“That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man. Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everyhing else we ove--everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires' it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.”

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Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“Maybe the wild ones weren't hyperactive; maybe they were misplaced heroes. After all, in another era, the same behavior that is now throttled with Ritalin and disciplinary rap sheets would have been the mark of greatness, the early blooming of a true champion. Riordan played with the idea, imagining the what-ifs. What if strong, assertive children were redirected rather than discouraged? What if there were a place for them, an outdoor training camp that felt like a playground, where they could cut loose with all those natural instincts to run, wrestle, climb, swim, and explore?”

HeroesHyperactivity
Book:Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance
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“It was the end of the era of the amateur, a time when everyone had to be a bit of everything. You helped your neighbors build their homes, fight their fires, raise and butcher and preserve their own food. You knew how to repair a weapon, pull a tooth, hammer a horseshoe, and deliver a child. But industrialization fostered specialization—and it was fantastic. Trained pros were better than self-taught amateurs, and their expertise allowed them to demand and develop better tools for their crafts—tools that only they knew how to operate. Over time, a subtle cancer spread: where you have more experts, you create more bystanders. Professionals did all the fighting and fixing we used to handle ourselves; they even took over our fun, playing our sports while we sat back and watched.”

Self RelianceSpecializationIndustrializationProfessionalsAmateurs
Book:Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance
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“Whenever an art form loses its fire, when it gets weakened by intellectual inbreeding and first principles fade into stale tradition, a radical fringe eventually appears to blow it up and rebuild from the rubble. Young Gun ultrarunners were like Lost Generation writers in the ’20s, Beat poets in the ’50s, and rock musicians in the ’60s: they were poor and ignored and free from all expectations and inhibitions. They were body artists, playing with the palette of human endurance.”

ArtsSports InspirationalBeat Poetry
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“But there's a problem," Dr. Bramble said. He tapped his forehad. "And it's right up here." Our greatest talent, he explained, also created the monster that could destroy us. "Unlike any other organism in history, humans have a mind-body conflict: we have a body built for performance, but a brain that's always looking for efficiency." We live or die by our endurance, but remember: endurance is all about conserving energy, and that's the brain's department. "The reason some people use their genetic gift for running and others don't is because the brain is a bargain shopper.”

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Author:Christopher McDougall
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“Fascia knows where you are in the world; it's loaded with position sensors that contribute to your sense of balance and feeds those bearings directly to that fear-conditioning corner of your brain, the amygdala. Any movement grooved into the fascia feels soothing, gratifying, efficient; try to unlearn it, as any batting coach or ballet teacher will tell you, and you're in for a struggle. New movements, no matter how necessary or logical, just feel wrong.”

Muscle MemoryFascia
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“Lisa Smith-Batchen, the amazingly sunny and pixie-tailed ultrarunner from Idaho who trained through blizzards to win a six-day race in the Sahara, talks about exhaustion as if it's a playful pet. 'I love the Beast,' she says. 'I actually look forward to the Beast showing up, because every time he does, I handle him better. I get him more under control.' Once the Beast arrives, Lisa knows what she has to deal with and can get down to work. And isn't that the reason she's running through the desert in the first place-to put her training to work? To have a friendly little tussle with the Beast and show it who's boss? You can't hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you , is to love it.”

The Beast
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“Strictly by accident, Scott stumbled upon the most advanced weapon in the ultrarunner's arsenal: instead of cringing from fatigue, you embrace it. You refuse to let it go. You get know it so well, you're not afraid of it anymore[...]You can't hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.”

PhilosophyRunningScienceExerciseAthletesThe Beast
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“Pentru ca noi am reusit sa ne creem chiar aici, pe pamant, un clopot de sticla cu gravitatie zero. Am eliminat sarcinile pentru care corpul nostru a fost creat, iar acum platim pentru asta. Toti marii ucigasi ai lumii occidentale - bolile de inima, atacul cerebral, diabetul, hipertensiunea si nenumaratele forme de cancer - erau complet necunoscute stramosilor nostri. Nu aveau acces la medicina, dar cunoasteau cateva pasiente magice care o inlocuiau cu succes.”

RunningRunner S High
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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“Nearly all runners do their slow runs too fast, and their fast runs too slow." Ken Mierke says. "So they're just training their bodies to burn sugar, which is the last thing a distance runner wants. You've got enough fat stored to run to California, so the more you train your body to burn fat instead of sugar, the longer your limited sugar tank is going to last." -The way to activate your fat-burning furnace is by staying below your aerobic threshold--your hard-breathing point--during your endurance runs.”

WayWantHardEnoughBodyRunningLastsTrainingDistanceTrainYour BodyFatsBurningBreathingCaliforniaStayingEnduranceSugarRunnersTanksThresholdActivateFurnacesDistance RunnerBorn To Run
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“...there was some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love *running*. The engineering was certainly the same: both depended on loosening your grip on your own desires, putting aside what you wanted and appreciating what you've got, being patient and forgiving and... undemanding...maybe we shouldn't be surprised that getting better at one could make you better at the other.”

KindRunningWantedDesireCapacityAppreciateConnectionsForgivingPatientGet BetterEngineeringCapacity To Love
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“Know why people run marathons? …Because running is rooted in our collective imagination, and our imagination is rooted in running. Language, art, science; space shuttles, Starry Night, intravascular surgery; they all had their roots in our ability to run. Running was the superpower that made us human — which means its a superpower all humans posses.”

PeopleKnowsHumansMeanArtMadeRunningNightLanguageImaginationAbilitySpaceRootsCollectivesRootedSurgeryMarathonSuperpowerPosseSpace ShuttleStarry NightLanguage Arts
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“Perhaps all our troubles - all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome - began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.”

PeopleWayRunningViolenceTroubleOvercomingGreedIllnessDenyObesityBorn To Run
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation.”

FirstsArtRealRunningFeltSecretMankindCreationFineOriginalsInspiredForgottenRememberedFine Arts
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

KnowsInspirationalMatterMotivationalRunningMorningSunWake UpCome UpFasterLionsEvery MorningRunnersMarathonInspirational RunningEarly MorningMotivational RunningKeep RunningUltrasRunning MarathonMarathon RunnersOutrunDistance RunnerDistance RunningGreat RunningCross Country RunningInspirational RunnerMarathon RunningRunning TrainingTraining For A MarathonMotivational Cross Country RunningMarathon MotivationalCross Country MotivationalRunning FunnyMorning SunFunny RunningBorn To RunWaking Up Every MorningGazellesUltra RunningFunny Cross Country RunningRunner UpInspirational TrainingRunning Late
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everything else we love-everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires'-it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run.”

WayRunningTogetherDesirePassionBornPlanetsDistanceSpreadRanMatesImpressSurvivedIndispensableNew LifeLife TogetherDistance RunningBorn To RunPassion And Desire
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“There are two goddesses in your heart,” he told them. “The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you.” Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you’ll get more than you ever imagined.”

ThinkingNeedsGivingFirstsHeartTwoRunningAsksWealthAttentionConcernJealousGoddessBackwardsChasingChasing Money
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“But you can't muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.”

WayBodyRunningEnjoyHoursFiveHotYour BodyMusclesShockRelaxBathsHot Baths
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain.”

WayMindArtSelfRunningTreeBreathsRhythmMusclesCavesHollowFluidCombiningTerrainBorn To RunPropulsion
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“But yeah, Ann [Trason] insisted, running was romantic; and no, of course her friends didn't get it because they'd never broken through. For them, running was a miserable two miles motivated solely by size 6 jeans: get on the scale, get depressed, get your headphones on, and get it over with. But you can't muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it, like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.”

WayTwoBodyRunningCoursesEnjoyHoursFiveBrokenHotYeahSizeYour BodyMilesScalesMiserableMusclesShockRelaxMotivatedJeansBathsHeadphonesHot Baths
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“The Tarahumara would party like this all night, then rouse themselves the next morning to face off in a running race that could last not two miles, not two hours, but two full days. According to the Mexican historian Francisco Almada, a Tarahumara champion once ran 435 miles, the equivalent of setting out for a jog in New York City and not stopping till you were closing in on Detroit.”

TwoRunningLastsFacesNightNextHoursPartyRaceCitiesMorningNew YorkMilesSettingSettingsRanChampionNew York CityHistorianStoppingMexicanAll NightClosingDetroitRunning Race
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“Only recently have we come up with the technology to turn lazing around into a way of life. We've taken our sinewy, durable, hunter-gatherer bodies and plunked them into an artificial world of leisure.”

WorldWayBodyTurnsTechnologyTakenCome UpLeisureArtificialHuntersBorn To RunHunter Gatherers
Book:Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen
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“When I'm out on a long run," she continued, "the only thing in life that matters is finishing the run. For once, my brain isn't going blehblehbleh all the time. Everything quiets down, and the only thing going on is pure flow. It's jus time and the movement and the motion.That's what love--just being a barbarian, running through the woods.”

LongMatterRunningBrainMovementPureFlowDown AndWoodsThings In LifeLong RunsJust BeingFinishingBarbarians
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle-behold, the Running Man.”

MenWayMindFirstsArtRealSelfRunningFeltSecretTreeMiddleMankindDesignCreationPaintingFineBreathsOriginalsInspiredBottomForgottenRhythmRememberedMusclesAncestorLightningCavesHollowFluidFine ArtsBoltsCombiningTerrainLightning BoltsPropulsionCave Paintings
Author:Christopher McDougall
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“Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don't look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by," Kerouac wrote. "Trails are like that: you're floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you're struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak... just like life.”

TryingLooksRunningFallWalksStruggleSunHellMeditationFeetHotDustParadisePoisonFloatingTrailsOaksTranceZipsNymphsNettles
Author:Christopher McDougall
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