Christopher McDougall

Harvard Book Store and the Boston Public Library are excited to welcome journalist and runner CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL, just in time for the 115th Boston Marathon, to discuss his bestseller Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, just out in paperback.

Christopher McDougall will be joined by a panel of groundbreaking scientists, coaches, and outright characters who shaped Born to Run. Panelists include Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Harvard's "barefoot professor;" running technique specialist Lee Saxby; biomechanics expert R. Irene Davis; screenwriter Marshall Lewy, who is working with Peter Sarsgaard to adapt Born to Run for the screen; and hunter-gatherer lifestyle convert John Durant.

Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. Award-winning journalist and often-injured runner 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.

"Born to Run [is] an operatic ode to the joys of running.... It's a fascinating subject, and the pages of Born to Run are packed with examples of McDougall's fascination. Running is his religion (he's a contributing editor at Men's Health magazine and has written for Runner's World), and he approaches the sport with the reverence and awe of a disciple encountering the face of his god. In this case, the god is the Tarahumara.... Born to Run is an examination of sport, an allegory of cross-cultural understanding and a catalogue of philosophies of living." —The Washington Post