Quotes from Christopher McDougall

The hands are swinging doors, built on the fortress of legs," the great Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man liked to tell his students. "Ip Man did not move a great deal," one

Hazte amigo del dolor, y nunca te encontrarás solo. KEN CHLOUBER, Minero de Colorado y creador de Leadville Trail 100

even though our brains account for only 2 percent of our body weight, they demand 20 percent of our energy,

pretty girl the German had danced with in a Cretan tavern during the Occupation was actually Xan in disguise.

PHILIP II, WARLORD OF MACEDON: If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city. SPARTANS TO PHILIP II: IF

But humans, with our millions of sweat glands, are the best air-cooled engine that evolution has ever put on the market.

Fred Wilt verified as much in 1959 in his classic track text, How They Train, which detailed the techniques of more than eighty of the world's top runners. "The forward foot moves toward the track in a downward, backward, 'stroking' motion (not punching or pounding) and the outer edge of the ball of the foot makes first contact with the track," Wilt writes. "Running progression results from these forces pushing behind the center of gravity of the body.

them. "The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you." Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you'll get more than you ever imagined.

Los Hombres Corredores podían obtener un montón de carne corriendo, pero no podían correr con la barriga repleta de carne, así que obtenían la mayoría de sus carbohidratos de raíces y frutas, dejando las chuletas de antílope para atiborrarse de calorías en ocasiones especiales.

running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time. And when things look worst, we run the most.

To live with ghosts requires solitude. —ANNE MICHAELS, Fugitive Pieces

Meanwhile, in Boston, Running While Female was literally a crime: any woman who dared attempt the Boston Marathon in the 1960s was subject to arrest by the cops or, if your dad was in charge, a beating. "If that girl were my daughter, I would spank her," race director Will Cloney famously snarled after Kathrine Switzer finagled her way onto the course in 1967.

Here were these little guys wearing sandals who never actually trained for the race. And they blew away some of the best long-distance runners in the world.

But yeah, Ann insisted, running was romantic; and no, of course her friends didn't get it because they'd never broken through. For them, running was a miserable two miles motivated solely by size 6 jeans: get on the scale, get depressed, get your headphones on, and get it over with. But you can't muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it, like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.

Outlaws have to be poised, smart, and independent; they have to cultivate allies, assess risk, and keep their antennae fine-tuned to everyone and everything around them. Outlaws focus on what people can do.

Así que Louis tuvo que aprender a sobrevivir comiendo ligero a lo largo de todo el día en lugar de llenarse con grandes comidas, a no permitirse estar sediento, como si todos los días se encontrara en medio de una carrera en marcha. El

The heroes of the past are untouchable, protected forever by the fortress door of time—

Cultiva unos geranios silvestres —sugirió—. O compra extracto por Internet.» El geranium niveum es la medicina mágica tarahumara; según el Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, es igual de efectivo que el vino tinto a la hora de neutralizar la acción de los radicales libres. En palabras de un escritor, los geranios silvestres son «anti todo: antiinflamatorios, antivirales, antibacterianos, antioxidantes».

We say the rarajipari is the game of life, Angel said. You never know how hard it will be. You never know when it will end. You can't control it. You can only adjust.

No matter how psyched you might have been about the race, consequently, you'd have to think twice about putting your life in the hands of a mysterious loner with a fake name whose closest friends lived in caves and ate mice and still considered him the iffy one.

Todas as manhãs em África acorda uma gazela. Há-de saber que tem de ser mais veloz do que o mais rápido dos leões ou vai ser morta. Todas as manhãs em África acorda um leão. Há-de saber que tem de ser mais veloz do que a gazela mais lenta ou morre à fome. Não interessa se és um leão ou uma gazela - quando nasce o sol, o melhor é correres.

Scott Jurek resumió el credo no oficial de los Jóvenes Pistoleros con una cita de William James que usaba para cerrar todos los emails que enviaba: «Más allá de lo extremo de la fatiga y el sufrimiento, encontramos cantidades de alivio y poder que nunca habíamos soñado con poseer; fuentes de fortaleza nunca antes puestas a prueba porque nunca habíamos empujado la puerta de oclusión». Conforme

So simple," he said. "Just move your legs. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You're denying who you are.

A guy like that, a wanderer who'd go anywhere but fit in nowhere.