From Reader Eric

I’ve been a miserable runner for as long as I remember – I’m a big, tall guy and everyone always told me I just couldn’t – except my mom. She’s 63 and runs 80 miles a week, and has been since she was 17 and started trail-running as part of her biology degree (she’s a botanist, liked to go out and get her own samples). Its her entertainment, her hobby, and her therapy.
I always wanted to be a runner, just like her, and so I read a lot
about it – I bought fantastically expensive shoes, tried bizarre diets
and painful routines. I got injured constantly.
I never understood what I was doing so wrong – my mom got injured twice running in her whole life, both times while running on ice. She buys shoes at the supermarket – the same place she gets her vegetarian produce. How can someone who spends $10 on a pair of shoes, runs with that funny-looking short-stride, and doesn’t even know that they need to protein-load teach me anything about running?
*sigh*
Long story short, I read your books a few months ago, and tried to
apply the distance-running-meets-tarahumara synthesis, and have never
enjoyed running so much in my life.
Thanks – I owe you all more than I can say.
Eric
p.s., I asked my mom where she learned to run the way she does.
“*shrug*”. She doesn’t read running books or magazines. She wasn’t on a track team. No-one ever taught her the wrong way.
p.p.s., I probably wouldn’t have even picked up your book if it
weren’t for how human and interesting you were on The Daily Show. So
please thank your publicist, or whomever got you on there for me, too.