{"id":2454633,"date":"2020-02-16T23:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T06:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=320974"},"modified":"2020-02-17T09:31:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T16:31:28","slug":"born-to-run-author-christopher-mcdougall-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/born-to-run-author-christopher-mcdougall-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Born to Run\u2019 author Christopher McDougall in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Christopher McDougall will speak Tuesday night at the Winter Words author series.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Few books have been as ubiquitous on Aspen bookshelves over the past decade as Christopher McDougall\u2019s 2009 narrative nonfiction blockbuster \u201cBorn to Run.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sparked the barefoot running craze and shined a fascinating light on Mexico\u2019s Tarahumara tribe and its running traditions, while announcing McDougall as a must-read participatory journalist and oddball sportswriter.<\/p>\n

But, McDougall said, he nearly cut out the \u201cBorn to Run\u201d chapter that gained the most attention for the book, that sparked a revolution in running \u2014 and in footwear \u2014 and fueled the ongoing debate about the merits of going barefoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was teeter-tottering between cutting it or leaving it in,\u201d McDougall, who will give a talk at the Winter Words author series Tuesday night, recalled in a recent phone interview from his home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, \u201cbecause it\u2019s the only chapter that\u2019s not part of the narrative. It\u2019s this side trip into the laboratory. I wasn\u2019t sure it fit, but I\u2019m glad I left it in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of the book centers around the author\u2019s immersion with the Tarahumara and his injury-prone running life, but he breaks off to tackle the latest science, delineating a series of \u201cpainful truths\u201d and making a case for running shoes as a cause of injury and barefoot running as the faster, safer option.<\/p>\n

McDougall\u2019s latest book \u201cRunning with Sherman,\u201d published in October, makes an argument for forging relationships with animals. In it, McDougall adopts an outcast donkey from one of his Amish neighbors and embarks on an unpredictable adventure of rehabilitating the donkey, which becomes his jogging partner along with a rag-tag crew of humans, eventually coming to Colorado to compete in the annual Burro Days races in Fairplay.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t think initially that Sherman the donkey would carry his next book. But as he learned about the animal\u2019s need to be useful, and the long history of human-animal partnerships, his narrative began taking shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when it dawned on me that this was something broader and deeper,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is something that has been natural to humans for generations but it\u2019s lost on us, and we are trying to grope our way back. That\u2019s when I figured there is a story bigger than just running with a donkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curiosity about the unknown, rather than expertise, has propelled McDougall\u2019s writing throughout his career. He has a gift for bringing readers along on his fumbling path from ignorance to discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d written any of my books from a position of real knowledge, the books would have been weak,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was about coming in as a student.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t a runner before writing \u201cBorn to Run,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was more experienced or I had opinions on running shoes, it might have been scoldy and tired,\u201d he said. \u201cBut instead I\u2019m coming in from a position where I\u2019m not sure, I\u2019m trying to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDougall developed that skill in his years as a foreign correspondent with The Associated Press, when he was reporting from Europe and from war zones in Rwanda and Angola.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number one job requirement was you were always trying to get to know a different culture while something dramatic was going on and you usually had limited knowledge of the language and culture,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all starts when you find one person who is interested in mentoring you a little bit,\u201d he said of his process in diving into these lesser-known sports. \u201cNinety-nine percent of it is to show up, shut your mouth and do your best. You show up with a lot of humility. You take your bruises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since \u201cBorn to Run\u201d he has become a consummate tour guide into the subcultures of uncelebrated sports. He\u2019s yet to tackle skiing and snowsports at length. Though he\u2019s made several trips to Aspen with his brother to run trails in the summer, McDougall has never before visited in the winter and is not a skier.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s currently in the early stages of a book about body surfing, following people who body surf massive waves in hazardous conditions with none of the fame, prizes and sponsorships available to surfers who use boards. The sport, he found, has a history going back thousands of years in the Pacific Islands.<\/p>\n

It appears an ideal match for the author who has made riveting narratives out of parkour, burro racing and barefoot running.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be an endless supply of people doing amazing things, but they are not on television, not getting Nike sponsorships,\u201d he said. \u201cSo much of what we consume is filtered through just a few sports like football, baseball and basketball. There is so much else going on out there that to me is way more impressive and participatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given McDougall\u2019s affinity for first-person narratives and fish-out-of water outsider stories, it\u2019s unsurprising that Hunter S. Thompson \u2014 the Woody Creeker and groundbreaking gonzo journalist \u2014 was an outsize influence on McDougall.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore in college in 1982, McDougall sent a handwritten letter to Thompson through the Woody Creek post office. He\u2019d read all of Thompson\u2019s work, and studied Thompson\u2019s collection \u201cThe Great Shark Hunt\u201d several times cover to cover in those days, planting seeds for how McDougall would approach participatory journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drank that stuff up,\u201d he said of Thompson\u2019s early work in conventional journalism and trailblazing gonzo pieces like \u201cThe Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.\u201d \u201cYou can watch him become this person who is writing authentically and idiosyncratically, and not at all of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher McDougall will speak Tuesday night at the Winter Words author series.Courtesy photo Few books have been as ubiquitous on Aspen bookshelves over the past decade as Christopher McDougall\u2019s 2009 narrative nonfiction blockbuster \u201cBorn to Run.\u201d It sparked the barefoot running craze and shined a fascinating light on Mexico\u2019s Tarahumara tribe and its running traditions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 15:04:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454654,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454633\/revisions\/2454654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}