The Once and Future Way to Run

This is an interesting article about running and, I really enjoyed how the writer without any introduction dives right into his story and uses a quote in the first paragraph.

When you’re stalking barefoot runners, camouflage helps. “Some of them get kind of prancy when they notice you filming,” Peter Larson says. “They put on this notion of what they think barefoot running should be. It looks weird.” Larson, an evolutionary biologist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire who has been on the barefoot beat for two years now, is also a stickler about his timing. “You don’t want to catch them too early in a run, when they’re cold, or too late, when they’re tired.”

The writer, CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL, not only breaks the "don't use a quote in your first sentence rule" but also quotes a source without introducing the source before; And it works well, I couldn't stop reading this story, even though it was incredibly long and I wasn't really sure what the point was until later on.

In the second paragraph McDougall hints at a possible story about running and photography - not so interesting to me, but he mentions running, and I'm on the hunt for a new pair of shoes, so I believe this story may be of value to me, so I keep reading. And then his third paragraph he name drops the trendy new brand - Vibram FiveFinger shoes - so I think it’s about Vibram.

But it's not and, you don't find out what exactly it is about until the end for the fourth paragraph where McDougall states - "Larson surreptitiously recorded them all, wondering how many (if any) had what he was looking for: the lost secret of perfect running."

So then I had to know, what does perfect running mean and how do you do it? Luckily this article has an illustration to show you the proper form. However the description and the illustration were not enough to get me out of my seat and actually try it. But then I noticed the video that was attached to this piece, and that did it for me. I watched the video several times, took off my shoes and started mimicking the people on screen. I wonder if this articles would have been one of the "top emailed" stories of the week had it not had the video. I also wonder if this story would be as popular if it were only available in print.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html?src=me&ref=general

Quote--The Cult of Physicality--by Natalie

Read the full article here--THE CULT OF PHYSICALITY

In addition to a fantastic lead and nut graf, this article had some notable quotes:

(The name of their gym is Gym Jones, which is a reference to the cult leader, Jim Jones, who lead more than 900 people to suicide) “We knew some people would call us a cult,” Ms. Twight said, “so we decided to own the joke.”

“ ‘No’ is a complete sentence,” Ms. Twight said. “I don’t need to give a reason.”

In reference to working out, the gym's owner said:  “It’s like sex,” she said. “You can’t just get up and leave afterwards. This is a relationship.”

This article was interesting, but the quotes from the exercise-intense gym owners and the manager really liven the whole thing up and give it some character.

Great read!!