Born to Run
I’ve been reading more recently than I have in a while, and I just finished Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. I originally bought the book after seeing Mr. McDougall on an episode of the Daily Show talking about the book. With my interest in anthropology, I assumed that the book would be an interesting look into the lives of the Tarahumara who live deep within the Copper Canyons. Although the book briefly touched on these people and their culture, it was really only included in tiny bits and pieces. It was mainly a book for runners, which wasn’t what I expected, but was ok with me anyway.
I’ve always enjoyed reading about running. Every once in a while when I’m out shopping I’ll buy the latest Runner’s World magazine. I should probably say right now that I don’t run. I’ve tried to get into it before and am trying to get into it now, but I can go maybe 0.2 miles before I have to stop and gasp for air while my legs throb. Still, reading about running always makes me think that there must be something more to it than just pain. The “greatest race the world will never see” that the Born to Run subtitle mentions was a 47 mile ultramarathon that took place in the Copper Canyons pitting the best of the Tarahumara against the best of the North American elite ultra runners. Kind of makes my 0.2 miles seem weak, doesn’t it?
My favorite chapter in the book though is one that has nothing to do with the rest of the book at all. Near the end of the book is a chapter completely devoted to human evolution. It attempts to answer the question of how we managed to win the evolutionary war when our stronger and bigger-brained neanderthal brethren died out. The theory that Born to Run puts forward is that we evolved to run. Our bodies have certain parts that are only linked with species that run (like the achilles tendon) and because we are bipedal we have the advantage of breathing that most running species don’t have (most running species get extra lung power by their organs sloshing back and forth helping to push air out and suck air in, but this limits them to only one breath per stride). The problem is that when most people hear that we evolved to run they automatically link running with speed. But we didn’t evolved for speed… we evolved for endurance running. We survived where neanderthals didn’t because we could run for long periods of time over great distances. How did this help us survive? Well, through persistance hunting of course. Animals don’t sweat, so they rely on their breathing to cool them off. The result is that when a group of hunters chases down an animal for long enough, it drops over dead from overheating. We had the endurance, so we got the food. This is Born to Run’s theory anyway, and I think it sounds about as plausible as any.
Mainly though, Born to Run is the story of a guy (Christopher McDougall) who got hurt running and wanted to know why he was in pain when some old Tarahumara guy in sandals was pain-free. Rambly at times, but always interesting; I highly recommend it.
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