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From “Born to Run.”

The story begins with the writer, who is 193cm tall and weighs 104kg, jogging a mere three miles (5km) on a snowy farm road, when he suddenly feels a severe pain and shows it to a sports medicine doctor, who diagnoses him with an inflamed cuboid bone and gives him a thick injection in the sole of his foot. I was diagnosed with an inflammation of the cuboid bone (sole) and given a thick injection in the sole of my foot, and told to wear motion-controlled running shoes costing at least $150 and custom-made orthotics ($400).

Animals can run every day and live without breaking down, so why can’t humans keep running? While on a business trip to Mexico on assignment for the New York Times Magazine, I happened to read an article in a travel magazine about the Talaumara, a tribe that runs tens of kilometers through the mountains in robes and sandals.

The Talaumara, who live in the mountains of Mexico, are an incredibly tough tribe that spends two full days racing through the mountains after a night of celebrating by drinking lechuguilla, a homemade tequila brewed from the carcasses of rattlesnakes and the sap of cactus trees. They are also known as the Raramuri (running people).

They easily surpass the performance of modern ultra-marathon runners without the special diet (pre-race carbo-loading and daily protein-based diet) and without the most advanced running shoes and equipment.

This book is both an adventure story about going to the unexplored regions of Mexico to reveal them, and a running story about the experience of meeting their secrets (barefoot) and racing in an ultramarathon on the toughest trails.

It’s a book that will make you want to go run (on the trail).