Mercer Island resident Dave Remy exudes enthusiasm. He talks quickly and is blessed with an analytical, yet philosophical, mind. Excitement builds when he begins talking about exercise, and the conversations can roam from what foods will give you the most nutritional benefit during a long run, to the new computer program on his bike, to a recent injury, to “what do you think of this supplement?”

What has Dave fired up today? He has just devoured Christopher McDougall’s book “Born to Run,” which centers on the astonishing Tarahumara Indians of Mexico and their ability to cover hundreds of miles across the toughest terrain in North America with surprising energy, fleetness of foot, stamina and a fundamental lack of high-tech equipment. Apparently Dave’s enthusiasm often parlays itself into generosity, and sure enough, five minutes after an initial conversation about the book, I find myself holding a new copy freshly purchased and hand delivered.

The sport of ultrarunning is a burgeoning field, with races held in the mountains and deserts of this continent — pitting competitors not only against each other, but against the elements of nature and often for more than 100 miles at a time.

The book centers on a somewhat mythical character, Caballo Blanco (the White Horse). His dream is to organize a race with the greatest ultrarunners in the world, in the savage Copper Canyons of Mexico. The book documents the efforts of the world’s finest trying to reach the race site. It is no easy feat in itself, as drug cartels patrol the area marked by perilous elements including overwhelming heat, snakes, unsafe water and miles of rugged trees, rocks and cliffs which require careful navigation. A wrong turn here, and you will literally die without anyone knowing what has become of you.

Much of the book is also an indictment of the modern shoe and apparel industries, and cites several studies which seem to indicate that the prevalence of running injuries over the past 30 years can be traced to the continuous build-up of the running shoe.

The Kenyans, the Kamahumara, and even the Stanford track and cross country teams are all proponents of the less-is-more, bare-your-feet to build a foundation methodology. After five national team titles, three Olympic qualifiers and 22 individual titles in 10 years, Stanford coach Vin Lananna drops this bombshell on a Nike rep curious to know why Stanford always opts for the thinnest, stripped down track and cross-country shoe that it produces: “I can’t prove this, but I believe that when my runners train barefoot, they run faster and suffer fewer injuries.”

What? It seems that a portion of each workout at Stanford is devoted to running on the infield of the track to force his runners to land in a perfectly balanced position, utilizing the whole foot to land and pronate away toward the next stride. This, in turn, helps to strengthen the arches and supporting ligaments around the foot. “Born to Run” cites several researchers and their studies, including one from Switzerland’s University of Bern, which noted that runners who purchased shoes which cost more than $95 were twice as likely to get injured as those wearing shoes with less padding which cost less than $40 while covering the same distances and training regimens. A follow-up study in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Journal reiterated these findings. These studies indicate that the greater the padding and the more we “force” our foot into a heel strike landing position, the greater the damage to the lower body.

Nike returned from this meeting and set about creating a “barefoot uprising” in 2002 — the premise being that if you support an area, it gets weaker, and if you “use it extensively, it gets stronger.” This seems plausible, as the human body tends to react directly to the stress that it is placed under. Witness anyone at the gym with a decent set of muscles, and you realize that he or she must regularly place strain on his/her muscles in order for them to defend themselves and grow stronger.

Throw in a healthy dose of flexibility and elasticity, and the body’s first line of defense against injury is quite visible. It takes strong, pliable tissue to take the load off of the 206 bones which make up your skeletal system.

Dave Remy is not a small man and will never be confused for a guy who epitomizes the whip-like propulsion system exhibited by the Kenyans. Where they are small of upper body with long, lean legs, he is powerfully built and thick through the chest and legs. His propulsion system is more semi-truck than sports car, and hence he has suffered continuous pain in his feet, knees and back while training for endurance events. He has begun incorporating barefoot running into his workouts, and probably because he has been forced to shorten his stride and land directly on the whole foot — and not just with the classic heel strike of the modern running shoe — his injuries, aches and pains are rescinding while his distances are increasing. His astonishment at this is so heartfelt and contagious that recently he managed to reach out and host a private party for some of the key players in the book.

A passion for all things physical is a joy not to be taken lightly, and every once in a while we need markers along the road to remind us that this stuff is pretty cool. Dave is just such a marker for many of us. His joy for athletic pursuit mirrors many in the book, and it goes much deeper than winning and losing but to something inherent inside all of us. Our ancestors ran for their very lives. They ran for food, and to avoid becoming food, and for celebration. That blueprint is as hardwired in us as is our need for sleep. Sadly, we seem determined to replace this blueprint with modern medicinal cures instead of courting a heavy preventative methodology. In short, getting off your butt — with or without shoes — and moving is the best thing that you can do for yourself and your family. It is no exaggeration to say that you’ve actually been designed for it.

I’d love to tell you how the book ends, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you. You can imagine, however, that the fitting finale involves the world’s greatest endurance athletes, some decked out in high-tech, dry-fit, super-absorbent apparel while others wear rubber-soled sandals and a poncho. All share the need to challenge not only themselves but mother nature, and to rediscover that blueprint stamped on our DNA.

A great book with a great message: everything you ever needed to be an athlete, you already own. It’s time to use it or lose it.

Islander Bryan Welch is the co-owner of Club Emerald.