Born to Run?

I don’t know if I was really Born to Run, but the book was absolutely amazing. As the best non-fiction authors tend to do, Christopher McDougal effortlessly crafts a story that gathers a diverse assortment of topics within two covers and leaves his readers more than curious about our true potential to run. While I am not planning on running ultras anytime soon nor do I intend to seek out the Tarahumara in the depths of Copper Canyon, I have begun to explore two of the “secrets” that seem to be captivating readers of this fantastic story.

1) While most people are chattering about bare-foot running, I was most intrigued by McDougal’s account of the mysterious Iskiate… Before I even finished the book, I had set off to find the necessary ingredients for Iskiate, and as I was about to give up, wandering the aisles of a local Whole Foods, my gaze fell upon a small bag of tiny black seeds. My heart skipped, and indeed, resting on the shelf before me were the holy chia seeds. Yes, the famous chia from everyone’s favorite ch-ch-ch-chia pets.
I was excited to whip up the Tarahumara’s mythic energy drink, but my expectations were rather limited when I stopped to actually ponder what a drink made of water, chia seeds, lime juice and sugar could actually do. I decided to make a batch after returning home, and despite a tired and hungry body, I let the drink sit for some time rather than eating dinner. As it settled, mixed and congealed, my stomach rumbled, and while I remained hungry after finally giving in and drinking the slimy sludge, I found that my energy rapidly returned and remained for quite some time. A successful first attempt, but how would it work when I was in action?
I found out the next weekend as I embarked on a six hour orienteering event which took me an embarrassingly long time: roughly five hours. I had eaten breakfast a while before race-start, and other than a packet of shot blocks and a few slices of orange, I had nothing else through the first half of the race. It was then that I had planned to drink my bottle of Iskiate, and unless I bonked, I had decided I would consume nothing more as an experiment to assess the drink’s potency. And so it was that I cracked the bottle and began drinking; having sat overnight, I found the drink to be a more homogenous consistency, and it truly was a refreshing and invigorating source of energy that easily carried me through the remainder of the event, even if it did nothing for my actual orienteering.
In summary, I am completely sold on Iskiate, and I’ve found the following recipe and directions to be ideal:
1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
2 teaspoons sugar
Juice from 1 lime OR orange juice/some other juice for taste
I mix this in by eye
Ideally, I like to let it sit in the fridge overnight, but it’s important to shake it regularly over the first half hour/hour so that the seeds don’t clump together, which makes for some tough drinking.

2) While I was most intrigued by the Mexican Mystery Magic, as I named it, I admit I was also fascinated by the science and theory behind barefoot running. Last week, I took the plunge and purchased a pair of Vibram 5-Fingers, and I went for my first run the next day. I know some purists think even the Vibrams are below barefooting it, but I think the Vibrams are close enough to the “real thing”.
So, off I went, my “bare” feet slapping down the sidewalk and into the leaves of Carpenter’s Woods. I felt fine on the pavement, but the loose-rock strewn path through the woods was too much too handle, especially considering the thick blanket of leaves that masked the rocks and pit-holes waiting for my exposed feet. After a hundred meters or so, I decided to walk the remaining stretch of trail before trying again on the tamer trails in Wissahickon. And there I found a fair degree of success. I stuck to the trails, and when they were clear of leaves, I was able to run at a healthy clip. After 15 minutes or so I worked my way out of the park, running the final stretch on roads and on grass. Indeed, on grass, my feet felt fantastic, and even on the pavement I felt quite good.
By the end of the run, I had covered roughly 3 miles, and I seemed to fluctuate between a walk and a 7 minute mile depending on the terrain. I had heard stories of first time barefooters overdoing it on their first attempt, so I wanted to keep the run short. Three miles, however, turned out to be plenty and probably was still too long; while my right foot ached by run’s end, I was shocked to find my calves in agony that night. Two days later, my left calf was still screaming with pain, and I found myself hobbling from the pain coursing through muscles that apparently have lain dormant for nearly three decades. That said, the pain was a good pain, the kind of pain that suggests you’re doing good by your body. While I’m not certain when I will try again (I blew out my ankle running the other night…in shoes…), I’m hopeful that my second run in my Vibrams will be as much fun, if not quite as painful.