Why We Run


Abstract:
Previously published as Racing the Antelope.

Body:
While browsing in a Border's several months ago I came across Bernd Heinrich's Why We Run: A Natural History. I was drawn by the promise of the title, to learn why we run, as in what is the ultimate, evolutionary explanation for running, not the proximate reasons for why people run. Although Heinrich talks about some of the latter, he never really addresses the former, so perhaps the book should be retitled How We Run, because that's really his purpose.

But poor choice of title doesn't make this a bad read. Although I found the book slow at first, reading about Heinrich's personal experience with running as a child, adolescent, and young adult, eventually he deals with the science of running and similar behaviors in other animals. Of particular interest to Heinrich is physical endurance in humans and animals because he is an ultramarathoner (someone who runs greater than marathon distances). He explores the physiology of how insects, camels, migratory birds, antelopes, felines, canines, and humans can travel great distances or achieve great speed. He then uses this information to inform his own running and conduct an "experiment of one" to find a winning strategy for an ultramarathon.

He only addresses the question of why we run from an evolutionary perspective once, and then only for a few pages, and then only just so. But if you ignore what I had hoped the book would be about, you'll find Why We Run interesting, even if the only runs you make are for beer.

Posted: Tue - January 17, 2006 at 08:53 AM         |    

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