Racing the Antelope by Bernd Heinrich

A little while ago I finished reading the book Racing the Antelope by Bernd Heinrich, so I figured that I would write a review. This book is very different from all the other running books I have read since it mainly compares the performance of humans to animals and insects. I would certainly not recommend this as one of the first running books to read. However, if you have already read quite a few other running books and are looking for something completely different this book might be for you. I must admit that I skimmed over some of the animal/insect chapters to move on to the more practical human application and the authors own training for ultramarathons. However there where certainly some interesting statics like the Antelope has been reported to cover 7 miles in 10 minutes and has a VO2 max of 300. My main criticism of the book is that there are too many chapters about animals/insects and not enough about his running. The author does discuss his training for his American Record attempt at the 100K distance and the race itself. All in all I would recommend the book, however, fortunately I was able to check the book out of the library because even though the book was interesting, I don't know if it would be good enough for most runners to purchase. Anyway my favorite quote the book mentions is... "Now if you are going to win the battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up."
George S. Patton, 1912 Olympian.