My favorite running books include “Born To Run”, “Eat & Run”, and “Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith”. Scroll down to see the full list and how to read or listen to them while you run.
Born To Run – “Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.
Eat & Run – In Eat and Run, Scott Jurek opens up about his life and career – as an elite athlete and a vegan – and inspires runners at every level. From his Midwestern childhood hunting, fishing, and cooking for his meat-and-potatoes family, to his early beginnings in running (he hated it), to his slow transition to ultrarunning and veganism, to his world-spanning, record-breaking races, Scott’s story shows the power of an iron will and blows apart all the stereotypes of what athletes should eat to fuel optimal performance.
Sydney McLaughlin knows about facing down obstacles. She has mastered not only racing over hurdles on the track but also tackling challenges in her personal life—from lifelong battles with perfectionism and anxiety to persistent questions about her identity and whether she was “enough.” In Far Beyond Gold, Sydney shares aspects of her life story and personhood she has never shared publicly before, offering a more complex picture of who she is.
Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed – In the dusty hills above San Diego, Bob Larsen became America’s greatest running coach. Running to the Edge is a riveting account of Larsen’s journey, and his quest to discover the unorthodox training secrets that would lead American runners to breakthroughs never imagined. Futterman interweaves the dramatic stories of Larsen’s runners with a fascinating discourse on the science behind human running, as well as a personal running narrative that follows Futterman’s own checkered love affair with the sport.
Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory – Deena Kastor was a star youth runner with tremendous promise, yet her career almost ended after college, when her competitive method—run as hard as possible, for fear of losing—brought her to the brink of burnout. On the verge of quitting, she took a chance on legendary coach Joe Vigil, who had started the first professional distance-running team in the US. At his Colorado training center, she encountered the notion that shaping her mind to be more encouraging, kind, and resilient could make her faster than she’d ever imagined possible.
Let Your Mind Run is a fascinating, intimate look inside the mind of an elite athlete, a remarkable story of achievement, and an insightful primer on how the small steps of cultivating possibility can give anyone a competitive edge.
Out and Back: A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds – Ultramarathon runner and North Face-sponsored athlete Hillary Athlete felt like she was on top of the world in 2017 as she competed in Norway’s Tromsø Skyrace. Then, nearly halfway through the 50-kilometer race, Allen fell 150 feet off an exposed cliff ridge, fracturing her back and breaking multiple ribs, both feet, and both of her lower arms. Beginning with the dramatic story of her nearly-fatal accident and remarkable rescue, Out and Back chronicles Allen’s incredible road to recovery and how she navigated the physical and mental health hurdles along the way.
