So I just finished reading both Running with the Buffalos: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men's Cross-Country Team, by Chris Lear and Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” by Christopher McDougall. It was strange reading both of these books at the same time, because they couldn’t be more different. Both books are obviously about running and were well written in my opinion (Disclaimer: I think classified ads are well written), but that’s where their similarities end.
Running with the Buffalos details the 1998 Cross Country season of the University of Colorado Men’s team. Anyone who has ever competed in XC can appreciate the ridiculousness of the workouts, times, races and trials the athletes faced. No one can argue about Coach Mark Wetmore’s success in regards to both his teams and athletes. But by the end of the book, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn’t any one thing that Wetmore or his athletes did; it was the whole business that is competitive/college running. I started reflecting on my brief college running career, which could be described in one word, dreadful. I probably had a typical college career, filled with unfulfilled expectations and of course injuries. Reading about Colorado’s workouts, mileage, races, and competition for a few slots reminded me how for the first time I actually hated running while I was in college. Colorado’s team really hammer themselves and a lot of them ended up injured. In the Afterwards I read that a lot of the runners continued to struggle with their injuries after leaving U of C. This seems to be the case with a lot of “elite” high school and college programs. The worst thing is when some of these athletes leave running for good. The team had a tremendous amount of camaraderie with each other, which was developed by the trials of the workouts and life. These guys really cared about each other, it was pretty cool to read about. Overall the book was an interesting read. Nothing like reading about guys that “cruise” through long runs at 5:30 pace.
Now to the book Born to Run; it was awesome. I don’t have the writing ability to do this book justice by describing it in detail. This was one my favorite books of all time. It focuses on the lifestyle of running, the incredible Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, barefoot running and the “myth” of the running shoe companies and how we were born to run. The book is filled with wild true stories about various super legit ultra-marathoners, ridiculously insane trail ultra marathons, and as the title states “the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.” My favorite quote of the book was in reference to the Leadville 100 mile run "You don't have to be fast; but you had better be fearless." I would recommend this book to anyone I know, both runners and non-runners.
Ok, enough with the book reviews. My running is starting to pick up and I was able to complete my longest run today (9 miles) since my IT Band injury. Next up for me is to solidify a race schedule for the upcoming year.
