Christopher McDougall is the author of the best-selling book Born to Run (review), a book published in 2009 that has spawned a revival in the running world.
Additionally, the book challenges the commonly held beliefs that:
- Running should be painful (Running shouldn’t hurt)
- Running shoes reduce injuries for runners (Still up for scientific debate)
The book also takes up the cause of the Tarahumara Indians, a tribe of indigenous people who live in the Copper Canyons of Mexico and run hundreds of miles a week without injury wearing nothing more on their feet than homemade shoes — huaraches — best described as a thin strip of rubber (often old tire material) laced to the foot with a strap of leather, not unlike the sandals worn by Romans of time long past.
As a result of Born to Run‘s literary success, McDougall has become the default spokesperson for the barefoot running and minimalist footwear movement (Though McDougall typically defers to the Godfather of the barefoot running movement, Ken Bob Saxton).
BirthdayShoes has taken an active interest in McDougall going so far as to interview Chris. In addition to the posts below on Mr. McDougall, please also find the wiki listing of Christopher McDougall articles here. You might also enjoy this Authors@Google presentation he gave in October 2008:
Christopher McDougall resides in Pennsylvania and blogs (when he has the time!) at chrismcdougall.com though he wasn’t at the time of writing Born to Run, he is now prefers to run barefoot.