Born in 1962, Christopher McDougall is an American writer, who has written for several publications and has authored four books. In 2009, McDougall published Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. At the beginning of Born to Run, McDougall says that as an assignment writer covering adventure sports, he had “ridden Class IV rapids on a boogie board, surfed giant sand dunes on a snowboard, and mountain biked across the North Dakota Badlands” (9). Additionally, he has also reported from three war zones and from some of the most lawless regions of Africa (9).

In the mid-1990s, McDougall began distance running, but within a few years he started suffering painful foot injuries. After learning about the Tarahumara runners of Mexico’s Copper Canyons, McDougall became curious to learn the secrets of how they could run unheard of distances and stay healthy. He was assigned by Runner’s World magazine to trek into the Copper Canyons and report on the Tarahumara secrets to running and health. While there, he tracked down Caballo Blanco, a mysterious American who lived there among the Tarahumara and eventually helped him to organize a Copper Canyon ultramarathon pitting some of the best Tarahumara runners against some of the best American ultrarunners.