The Naked Tour

   After the marathon expo and lunch, Tom, Lyn, Renee and I headed over to the Boston Public Library with hopes of catching "The Naked Tour", a presentation on barefoot running.  "The Naked Tour" was organized by Chris McDougall who is the author of the pivotal best selling book "Born To Run".  The book is possibly the most influential book in the sport of running and describes Chris' adventures in running.  As a middle aged, semi-athletic individual Chris would run a few miles a week to try to stay in shape.  Despite a relatively low mileage, Chris suffered a stress fracture in his lower leg and was told by his physician that "the injury was from running.  Running is inherently bad on your joints and bones".  Frustrated by this response Chris questioned what his doctor had told him and wondered why other animals don't get these injuries ... his example was "Cheetahs run all day, and they don't get stress fractures".  Through a random series of events he stumbles upon a tribe of Indians in Mexico who were superathletes, with each member of the tribe running upwards of 20-30 miles a day ... barefoot.  These revelations sparked a movement aimed at barefoot running.  The thought was that the human foot has evolved over millions of years and for 99.99% of that time ... we weren't running in shoes.  Without giving away the entire book, it delves into some scientific research that has been done looking at the mechanics of running and how they have changed since we started wearing heavily padded / cushioned shoes.  The book isn't a scientific book, although a little chunk is spent talking about the evolution of the foot, but rather it tells the story of a ridiculous ultramarathon that poses the this tribe of Indians vs some of the best ultramarathoners in the world. 

I know that I have essentially handed out an entire reading list with all of the books that I have recommended in this blog, but if you have time its also worth reading this one.  Its pretty entertaining and really motivating. 

    Needless to say, we arrived to the auditorium a little bit late.  We were told as we started to get in line that they were at capacity and that there was a chance we may not even get in to see the presentation!  That's when luck struck!  What I didn't tell you is that our friend Tom is actually friends with Chris McDougall (author / organizer of the tour).  He first met Chris a couple of years ago after Chris read one of the articles Tom wrote for a New England Running Magazine.  They have kept in touch since and tend to get together when Chris is in the Boston Area.  As we were waiting in line, Chris thankfully walked out of the auditorium and saw Tom waiting.  He waved Tom & Lyn in around the line, and like so many times before, they were able to sneak us in too.  Not only did we get waved in around the line, but Chris had "reserved" seats for us "up front".  So ... up front really meant right in the front row next to all the speakers!  It was pretty incredible.

Renee and I with Chris McDougall.  Chris was nice enough to autograph our copy of his book.

     The presentation was a little bit long, but was really informative.  I consisted of a few scientists and researchers presenting their work about the mechanics and benefits of barefoot running.  In addition, they had some other barefoot runners, the writer of the soon to be movie "Born to Run", Scott Jurek (I will get into his accomplishments in a minute) and of course Chris McDougall. 
     The highlight of this talk for me was definitely getting to meet Scott Jurek.  He is one of the characters in the book and is possibly one of the most elite ultramarathon runners of all time.  To kind of put it in perspective, he is essentially the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of running.  When you hear his accomplishments, you will think he is super human.  Here is a short list of them:

- Won the Spartathlon 3 years in a row.  This is a 152 mile race from Athens to Sparta
- Won the Badwater Ultramarathon 2 years in a row and set a course record.  This is literally the most ridiculous race you could ever imagine.  Its a 130+ mile race through death valley in the middle of July.  The temperatures during the race push 130 degrees at time and the road gets so hot that runners literally have to run on the white line in the road to prevent their shoes from melting
- Ran for 24 straight hours around a 1 mile track.  He set a record for the most miles run in a 24 hour period after clocking over 162 miles
  
    Since we were sitting in the front row, and he was on the floor right next to me, we were actually able to talk to him for a minute or two and get a picture with him.  Honestly, it was a very nice and humble dude ... really, its how you want all professional athletes to act.  Meeting him, was definitely the highlight of the day for me. 

Tom and I with Scott Jurek.  You can tell from Tom's face that he is really excited to meet Scott as well.  Surprisingly, Scott didn't have the typical runner's build.  He was actually taller than me, not normally what you think of when you try to picture an elite ultramarathon runner.

This picture was just to show everyone how close we were to Jurek during the presentation.  He was literally right next to us!

Scott Jurek talking about how he gets through these ultramarathons.  He said the best thing to do is to"turn your brain off" and to break things down into manageable goals.  Rather than focusing on "the last six miles" he said to focus on smaller goals like getting to the next water stop or getting to the next turn.