Born to Run

When I was at W&M, Randy Hawthorne and one of my college roommates, Scott Douglas (who is now the online editor of Running Times), used to go off and run ultra-marathons. I thought they were crazy! While this book has nothing to do w. W&M (unless you count the fact that it mentions Vin Lananna who ran for Roy Chernock prior to his coming to W&M), it is a great read and does ask some very interesting questions. You won't agree with all of it (if you are hurting, then you are running too fast & 98% of runners should not wear shoes when running ), it is a great story - albeit partly about ultras and the joy of running. Amazingly it is now 16th on the NYTimes Bestseller list and a quick read. Here is Bill Rodgers' review of it and the WashPost (June 21st).