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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Book by Christopher McDougall · 8 quotes · Running, Runner S High, The Beast

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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen 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.”

RunningPassionInstinctNon Fiction
Book:Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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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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“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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