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Comment by jjindev | Hacker News Reader

I suspect this will be a long-tail answer, but what the heck:

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

It is not a perfect book, but it did get me running, and in that sense literally changed my life.

You know that running is as bad for health than staying on a chair all day long, right? For example the marathon is extremely stressful for the body and my friends w who do it all admit they are sick for one month afterwards.

I am pro running, but anti-marathon. One resembles normal daily activity, the other a major survival event.

I'm pro-marathon until it heads into five hour territory, then I'm convinced one should work on bringing down that half-marathon time rather than seeing if one can survive shuffling 26 miles. Elitist attitude it may be, but I just don't think you're doing yourself any good going into it so woefully unprepared that it takes you that long.

Do you have any evidence beyond the anecdotal that running is bad for your health?

> You know that eating bananas is as bad for health than staying on a chair all day long, right? For example eating an enormous amount of bananas at once is extremely stressful on the body and my friends who do it all admit they are sick for one month afterwards.

Your friends are likely not fully prepared for the marathon. Saying something and then trying to prove it true with a hear-say based example of an extreme case is ridiculous. Please don't post comments like this on HN.

Posting unconventional views is ok in HN, in fact it is the only place I know where it is possible. My unconventional view is that sport is bad for health. If you count all the injuries, the health issues, etc that can be attributed to sport... The problem is that most people mistake sport for exercise， which is good. E.g. walking or cycling at normal speed for the commute is good, lifting weight or running like crazy is bad.

As so many people suggested books related to fitness, I suppose this unconventional view has its place here.

Right, indeed. It keeps me thin, keeps my blood pressure down, and it gives me the fitness to do other things...just like sitting in a chair does. People get sick after a marathon because on that particular day they've added a high level of physical stress that lowers immunity. Don't worry, they'll get better, and probably come back better for it (look up "training effect").

I ran a marathon before and I can tell you there's no negative effect, aside from the obvious muscles soreness. OTOH, I can spend all day tell you about the benefits of training for and running a marathon.

For more running related books you should check out "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker Jr. [1], and "Eat and Run" by Scott Jurek [2].

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/1441800905 [2] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544002318

Indeed, for me it was a page turner and inspiring.

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