54 pages • 1 hour read
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
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Themes
Tarahumara Culture and Traditions
One of the overarching themes of Born to Run is Tarahumara culture and traditions. In Chapter 1, McDougall describes the Tarahumara as a “near-mythical tribe of ‘Stone Age’ superathletes” (4). He also argues that the Tarahumara “may be the healthiest and most serene people on earth, and the greatest runners of all time” (4). While their remarkable long distance running ability might be what the Tarahumara are most known for, their peaceful, shy, and mysterious nature are aspects imbedded in their culture. As opposed to unique traditions, culture refers to the shared characteristics of a group. The serenity, or peacefulness, McDougall refers to is such a characteristic, as is their timidity and reclusiveness.
Those characteristics of the Tarahumara are easily explainable, however. McDougall argues that “the last time the Tarahumara had been open to the outside world, the outside world put them in chains and mounted their severed heads on nine-foot poles” (29). He is referring to the invasion of Spanish silver hunters in the 17th century, during which the Spanish established silver mines in Tarahumara territory and forced them into slave labor (29). Similarly, when Wild West bounty hunters in the 19th century were offered money for Apache scalps, the hunters slaughtered Tarahumara and “cashed in on their look-alike hair” (29). McDougall argues “no wonder the Tarahumara’s mistrust of strangers had lasted four hundred years and led them here, a last refuge at the bottom of the earth” (29).
Foods, housing, and wardrobe are examples of Tarahumara customs, but the traditions that exist in the realm of social interaction are the most unique. In Chapter 5, McDougall explains that “the Tarahumara have no monetary system,” so their economy is based on trading favors and the idea of korima (37). Korima functions the same way karma does in other cultures, meaning that one is obligated to share, “instantly and with no expectations” (37). In Chapter 6, McDougall is given the opportunity to watch a children’s rarajipari, the ancient running game played by the Tarahumara with a wooden ball. The schoolteacher remarked to McDougall that “real rarajipari was the heart and soul of Tarahumara culture” (41).
What he meant by “real rarajipari” is that the adult version of the game is much different. While the child’s version on this day went for only six miles, the adult game can last for 24 or 48 continuous hours. It also differs in the social interaction involved. These rarajiparis feature villages playing against one another and do not begin until the tesguinada ends. McDougall describes the tesguinada as a “marathon drinking party” that serves the noble purpose of acting as a pressure valve to relieve emotions (187). He argues that “just like the rest of us, the Tarahumara have secret desires and grievances, but in a society where everyone relies on one another and there are no police to get between them, there has to be a way to satisfy lusts and grudges” (187).
Though McDougall’s book is intended as a respectful representation of the Tarahumara culture, it has been criticized for exploiting the access he was given as well as sensationalizing his time among the people of the Copper Canyon.
The Evolution of Distance Running
The evolution of distance running is another primary theme running throughout Born to Run. In Chapter 2, McDougall explains that there have been three booms in the number of people participating in distance running, and “it’s always in the midst of a national crisis” (11). The first of these was during the Great Depression, when the Great America Footrace was organized and more than 200 runners raced 40 miles every day across the entire country (11). The second was during the early 1970s, when people took up running to cope with the Vietnam War, the Cold War, race riots, the Watergate scandal, and the assassinations of national leaders (11-12). The final boom of distance running was after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when “trail-running suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country” (12). McDougall writes that maybe it was a coincidence, but maybe there is a trigger in our psyche that activates our greatest survival skill when we sense danger and tragedy (12).
In Chapter 15, McDougall discusses the joy of running is a historical sense and how it has changed over time. When Coach Joe Vigil came to Leadville to watch the Tarahumara, he saw the same sort of joy that used to exist. McDougall argues that “glee and determination are usually antagonistic emotions, yet the Tarahumara were brimming with both at once, as if running to the death made them feel more alive” (91). That is precisely the sort of emotional connection people found when the running boom of the 1970s was taking place. McDougall points out that “back in the 70s, American marathoners were a lot like the Tarahumara; they were a tribe of social outcasts, running for love and relying on crude equipment” (93). Before long, however, commercialism took hold in running. Nike invented the modern running shoe in 1972, right after the Hall of Fame track coach who helped found the company advocated a new style of running that could only be done with that shoe, and by 1984 track athletes were openly endorsing commercial products at the Olympics (181).
Although ultrarunning, which is technically defined as running distances longer than the 26.2 miles of a traditional marathon, has been around for centuries, the aspect of competing at ultrarunning is relatively new. Born to Run bridges that gap from the most primitive forms of ultrarunning, as a means of survival, to the modern sport. When Caballo tells the story of the Tarahumara competing in the Leadville 100 during the 1990s, he also explains to McDougall that a lot has happened in the sport since then. He argues that “ultrarunning used to be just a handful of freaks in the woods with flashlights, but over the past few years, it has been transformed by an invasion of Young Guns” (111-112). According to McDougall, “these Young Guns wanted something fresh, tough, and exotic, and they were flocking to trail-running in such numbers that, by 2002, it had become the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country” (112).
The Science of Running
One of McDougall’s primary arguments made throughout the book is that humans are born to run. This notion is also supported by one of the book’s primary themes: the science of running. In Chapter 28, McDougall examines the Running Man theory, which suggests that through evolution humans developed the anatomical and physiological adaptations needed to run long distances. In the early 1980s, a budding scientist and his professor at the University of Utah pieced together anatomical clues indicating that “a mystifying but unmistakable time line was taking shape: as the human body changed over time, it adopted key features of a running animal” (220). The scientists also concluded that “human running was about going far, not fast” (221).
The advantage to having a body designed to run far, like humans, over having a body designed to run fast, like other mammals, was survival. Because we know humans were eating meat for nearly two million years before the invention of advanced hunting weapons, we also know that humans “were getting meat with their bare hands” (226). The answer to that mystery was what anthropologists call persistence hunting, which literally means running an animal to death. The science behind persistence hunting rests on the fact that humans can breathe and run at the same time, and we dump heat through sweating. Animals, on the other hand, do not sweat as effectively and must dump heat through panting, which they are physically unable to do while galloping. According to the scientists, “after about ten or fifteen kilometers’ worth of running, it will go into hyperthermia and collapse” (227-228).
The science of running as a theme in McDougall’s work also extends to the discussion of injuries. In Chapter 2, McDougall explains that the genesis of Born to Run was his own injuries and how to overcome them. What he found in consulting three separate doctors is that his injuries would not stop until he stopped running. McDougall points out that “up to eight out of every ten runners are hurt every year. It doesn't matter if you’re heavy or thin, speedy or slow, a marathon champ or a weekend huffer, you’re just as likely as the other guy to savage your knees, shins, hamstrings, hips, or heels” (9). As the book progresses, however, we learn that there has been an uprising among veteran ultrarunners who believe that the common running injuries can be avoided by adopting Tarahumara techniques, beginning with moving away from running shoes and into thin-soled shoes, such as sandals or even bare feet. In Chapter 25, McDougall presents evidence that padded running shoes have caused more injuries rather than fewer.
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