I hated COL Weiss. I was in constant pain, and I felt humiliated. But I kept running. If for no other reason, I ran to be seen running. I wanted “Ranger Weiss” to know I was at least trying. One of these mornings, I noticed another member of my team, Capt. Nikita Belikov, going into the gym. He went to the gym every morning at the exact same time. I could almost set my watch to it.

Nikita Belikov is a Russian born immigrant who graduated from the Air Force Academy. He was our communications specialist. He reminded me of the Russian boxer “Drago” in the movie Rocky IV. He is smart, disciplined, extremely fit, and everything he does seems effortless. He is a genetic gift to the human race. In fact, he jokes that he is the product of a Soviet genetic experiment. In high school, he was a varsity weight lifter. He became my personal trainer. Six days a week at 5:00 AM, he put me through a Crossfit workout. Then at 6:00 AM, I ran three painful miles. One of the Crossfit workouts had a running segment and I asked Nikita about running. He said, “It looks to me like you are striking your heels too much. You should look into Chi Running. Just Google it. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”  The Chi Running website promised “Pain-Free, Effortless Running.” I signed up for the newsletter and ordered the training program.

Chi Running changed everything. My foot and leg injuries actually healed while I was running. I could run several miles every single day with no pain. I lost weight and gained muscle. My mental shift was most astounding. It was a total lie to tell myself that I was genetically incapable. If I can run, and if I can lose weight; what other lies have I been telling myself? What am I capable of?  I took up speed reading. I started learning Arabic. I left the Iraqis with two full sized manuals in both English and Arabic which I wrote with my Iraqi counterpart. Now, I am systematically crushing all the “lies” in my life.

Harry Y.

Today it clicked!!! I finished reading your book a month ago, but it has really been almost a year since I have been exposed to the concept of Chi Running. Let me take a step back to explain my excitement. I have been in the Army for nearly 26 years and have had my bumps and bruises. I have a wrecked back with degenerated vertebrate and discs, 3 knee surgeries, 1/2 bone removed from the arch in both feet. Needless to say that pain is part of my daily routine. I cannot recall how long it has been since I have ran more than 2-3 miles. About a year ago, I met another soldier who had been training with a Chi Running instructor because he had a messed up back and wanted to continue to run. Unsure of the concept I went out and ran with him. Surprising it did not hurt. I was convinced of the concept, but it was a while before I bought your book, then one day I visited a book store closing sale and your book was on the shelf so I bought it. I have been working on the form and concept on my own for about 7 months. I have had some success, but only running a couple of miles at a time and then I revisited old habits too easily.

This morning I decided I would go for a Long Slow Run (LSR). Long being a relative word, I though maybe I would push myself to 4 or 5 mile. As I said in my opening, today it clicked. I started off with my Merril Trail Gloves on my feet, metronome on my collar, heart rate monitor and GPS. I did not pay any attention to any of the electronics with the exception of the beep reminding me to keep my tempo at 90 steps a minute. I started off at a comfortable pace, just enjoying feeling my body move nice and tall, good "c", feet landing behind my body. I just enjoyed the flow, felling my feet move like a wheel. I looked at the GPS and realized I just ran two miles -- NO PAIN! So, I just kept running got to 3 miles and my perceived level of exertion was less than my normal first mile. After 3 miles I started feeling a little strain in my left calf. Revisiting my body scan I let the tension go and kept runing, 4 miles, 5 miles, 6 and then 7. This is fun so I kept going. I got back to the house and I was at 8 1/2 miles so I decided to just finish the last mile ending at 9 MILES! Wow! The only reason I stopped is that there was more to do today. Now several hours later, I still feel rested.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Jack from Virginia

While browsing through some different websites on running I clicked on Chi Running by mistake. That was the best mistake of my life. This was about 2 weeks ago. I started reading all the blogs by Danny and immediately bought Chi Running for my Nook. I am in Chapter 6 now and am running without walking for 2-3 miles per day. I don't feel fatigued or sore at all. I must admit I didn't follow Danny's advise and read through the whole book first. I wanted to start running again, but paid for it with calf pain. I didn't know what I was doing wrong until he said to do the sand pit drill. Well, there is lots of sand here in Afghanistan, so I tried it out a couple days ago and now I have no more calf pain. Wow.

I noticed in another love letter someone else had mentioned that after doing the pool running drill they could feel the pelvis rotating. I did that the other day. Not the drill, I just remembered what it was like to "walk like crazy to get back to the diving board" as a kid, and it happened. I leveled my pelvis, and my pelvis and hips started to rotate.

I have told friends here who are older and have stopped running about your book. Now, there are half a dozen of us waiting anxiously for the books to get here (I wanted to use Chi Running as a manual - can't really do that with the Nook so I ordered the paperback, too!)

Thank you so much! I actually enjoy running again!
Phil C., Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan

An Update:

I've been running with the ChiRunning method about 6 weeks now. When I first started it seemed very easy. I run almost every day here in Afghanistan and lately, I have been having troubles with my knees. Every time I run, I try to check my posture, work on my lean and other focuses, but it didn't seem to help.

This morning I planned on a 9.11K run im memory of 9/11 victims, the men and women we have lost since then in fighting for our liberty, including some very dear friends of mine.

So as I was running, my legs again felt very heavy and my knees began to hurt. I concentrated on relaxing everything except my core, but it still didn't seem to help. About mile 4 of 5.66, my legs were really tired. I was running slow, about a 11-1130 mile pace. Without realizing what was happening, I was falling forward (I think I was just so tired - no sleep the night before, plus a 3am run). I literally "fell into" my window of lean. I could feel my feet landing under me, catching me as I was falling forward. It was amazing. By this time I had about a mile left of my run and I was still falling forward. I looked at my Garmin and found I was running a 8:40 mile pace, without any noticeable increase in effort. My legs were just floating up behind me, my knees started to feel better, and my heart rate stayed low. I ran the last mile in 8:45, which for me is really very good. I tried to body sense what was happening as I did it. We'll see tomorrow if I remember during my run.

Thank you ChiRunning! Thanks Danny!

Phil C.
Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan

Coming off fast long training runs of 11 miles (Larry isn’t one to do the 20-mile preparation thing), he told me that he wanted to test his body and decided to go forward into the 3:30 pace group while I decided to align my injury-prone frame with the 4:00 folks, silently hoping to break that elusive four-hour barrier that I last cracked in March of ’09. So I let Larry go ahead and hoped I wouldn’t pass him at mile 23.
 
And, even though I had not used the Chi Running technique, I thought I would experiment (something older people like to do once in a while). I met Danny Dreyer, author of Chi-Running, at the marathon’s expo on Thursday and asked him to sign his book, which I read a few years ago. At that time I didn’t really get a lot out of it and thought that running coaches were somewhat of a redundant joke. C’mon, how difficult is it to put one foot in front of another and head down the path? Do we need breathing coaches, too, I wondered?  But, as the years went by and several injuries later ... and hopefully a bit wiser, I decided to attend his seminar at the expo and pay attention.
 
Danny’s talk was preceded by a presentation by a family practice MD, an Air Force Reserve officer, who actually won this marathon in ’06. His emphasis was on natural running, minimalistic shoes, and mid-foot striking, which made sense to me, although I didn’t know how to do it. Dr. Cucuzzella would run a fine marathon here, finishing fifth overall in 2:42. Impressive for a part-timer, a true amateur. I asked him a question about plantar fasciitis, the condition that plagued me for the past two years and complete death for a lot of runners. His response was typical of the vast majority of MDs – very incomplete. But Danny, standing nearby, heard my question and replied that walking, wearing only socks, on a gravel driveway, for five minutes a day would help. He might be right. I felt glad to be healed.
 
Danny then delivered his sermon. An entertaining and a dynamic speaker, he involved the entire audience by conducting a hands-on demonstration of  his technique. After about 45 minutes of instruction, he asked for questions and I inquired about how to land with a mid-foot strike. He immediately demonstrated and it finally clicked in my dense brain. It was the best seminar on running I had ever heard – by far. And that includes a few that I attended at the Boston Marathon.
 
So I rationalized that I had nothing to lose by trying his method … except perhaps yet another injury, which would be nothing new. Sometimes one must take a risk. So as we began at 7:15, after listening to about 15 minutes of introductions of dignitaries and watching a huge bomber fly over our heads (reminded me of the RAF Tornadoes at Lossiemouth in Scotland), I watched the footstrikes of many runners. Actually I became fixated on this for most of the race. And gradually I found my form adapting to the Dreyer method rather easily as I kept up effortlessly with the 4:00 group. I suppose it helped that the pacer was a lovely young female with a PR of 2:37.  She was surrounded by about 30 men and women, making me content to hang in the back of the pack and take in the atmosphere of the Air Force Base. I expected a dreary, bleak, shade-less no-man’s land, but was pleasantly surprised by several pockets of screaming fans, pumped up military, the bomber flying overhead, and significant stretches of shade from buildings and trees.
 
Our pace leader kept perfect time, the miles rolling off at nearly 9:00 on the nose, which was great since I fell behind due to a very functional bladder that required three or four bathroom breaks, for one of which I actually entered a porta-potty. Male advantage and, yes, there were a few, strategically (at least from my standpoint)  positioned trees on the course. After answering those calls to nature, I was able to see the 4:00 sign, carried nobly by this young lassie, and catch up to the pace group. Thanks to her, I finished the half comfortably in 1:59.
 
All the while, as I practiced Chi Running, I did not notice any muscle soreness, the miles ticking away effortlessly. I wondered if I would again, as usual, slow down decrepitly in the last five miles. Time would tell. But after mile 17, I could not see any mile markers to track my pace and had to trust the pace leader for accuracy. In fact, the next mile marker I saw was number 22. At this point I felt fine, relaxed and enjoying the sights, sounds of the occasional cheering crowd, and running very, very easily, a feeling that I normally don’t have at mile 22.
 
So after my final potty break, I figured I’d better catch up to our steady leader, which I did without much stress, and overheard her saying that we were 45 seconds behind pace time. When I started running alongside her, she told me that she said that we were actually 45 second ahead of schedule. Whew! By now I knew that, along with my lightweight NB 903s (fortified by Stacy’s marvelous orthotics), Chi Running was going to help me break four hours. I resolved to break away from the pack at mile 25, which I did, increasing my cadence while sticking to a mid-foot strike, and calmly and methodically weaving in and out of the slower runners and walkers who formed a veritable obstacle course. I had so much gas left in the tank over the last half mile that I didn’t know what to do. Should I sprint or just finish quickly? Fortunately reason took over and I sped happily across the finish line in 3:59 and waited a minute or so to give a hug to my pace leader, a brave young lady. I also wanted to shout Danny Dreyer’s name loudly.
 
At this point, besides being satisfied with my time, I was bewildered that my muscles weren’t sore. Not at all. Could I have run faster? Probably yes. Another thing that amazed me was that my muscles responded in this hot weather (about 75 degrees when I finished).  Then, after going through the food tent twice and returning once to the finish line in an effort to find Larry, I discovered him slumped in a heap near the exit, happy that he did 3:41 but feeling very sore and exhausted. I wonder how he would have felt if he had used Chi Running.  Anyway, it worked well for me and Danny, you now have another disciple for your running method. Next stop: Bar Harbor!
 
Robert F. K., DDS
Retired, but still alive