Are we born to run Christopher McDougall

running you know it’s basically just

right left right left yeah I mean we’ve

been doing it for two million years so

it’s kind of arrogant to assume that

I’ve got something to say that hasn’t

been said and performed better a long

time ago but with the cool thing about

running as I’ve discovered is that

something bizarre happens in this

activity all the time

case in point a couple of months ago if

you saw the New York City Marathon I

guarantee you you saw something that no

one has ever seen before an Ethiopian

woman named derartu tulu turns up at the

starting line she’s 37 years old she

hasn’t won a marathon of any kind in

eight years and a few months previously

she had almost died in childbirth the

Arthur Tolu was ready to hang it up and

retire from the sport but she decided

she’d go for broke and try for one last

big payday in the marquee event the New

York City Marathon except bad news for

dr. to loose some other people had the

same idea including the Olympic gold

medalist and Paula Radcliffe who is a

monster the fastest woman marathon or in

history by far only ten minutes off the

men’s world record Paula Radcliffe is

essentially unbeatable

that’s her competition the gun goes off

and I mean she’s not even an underdog

she’s like under the underdogs but the

under underdog hangs tough and 22 miles

into a 26 mile race there is derartu

tulu up there with the lead pack now

this is what something really bizarre

happens Paula Radcliffe the one person

who is sure to snatch the big paycheck

out of director to lose under underdog

hands somebody grabs her leg and starts

to fall back so we all know what to do

in this situation right you give her a

quick crack in the teeth your elbow

blades for the finish line draw to tulu

ruins the script instead of taking off

she falls back and she grabs Paula

Radcliffe says come on come with us you

can do it so Paula Radcliffe

unfortunately does it she catches up

with the lead pack and is pushing toward

the finish line but in she falls back

again and the second time for arc to

tulu grabs or tries to pull her and

paula radcliffe at that point says I’m

done

go that’s a fantastic story and we all

know how it ends she loses a check but

she goes home was

something bigger and more important

except direct with Hulu ruins the script

again instead of losing she blazes

passively pack in wins wins a New York

City Marathon goes home with a big fat

check it’s a heartwarming story but if

you drill a little bit deeper you’ve got

to sort of wonder about what exactly was

going on there you know when you have

two outliers and one organism it’s not a

coincidence when you have someone who is

more competitive and more compassionate

to anybody else in the race again it’s

not a coincidence you show me creature

with webbed feet and gills somehow

waters involved some with that kind of

heart there’s some kind of connection

there and the answer to it I think can

be found down in the copper canyons of

Mexico where there’s a tribe a reclusive

tribe called the Tarahumara Indians now

the tabla mata are remarkable for three

things number one is they have been

living essentially unchanged for the

past of 400 years when the conquistadors

arrived in North America you had two

choices you can either fight back and

engage or you could take off the mines

and the Aztecs engaged which is why

there are very few mines and Aztecs

doTERRA Mata had a different strategy

they took off and hid in this

labyrinthine networking kind of spider

webbing system of canyons called the

copper canyons and there they’ve

remained since the 1600s essentially the

same same way they’ve always been the

second thing remarkable but about the

Tarahumara is deep in the old age 70 and

80 years old these guys aren’t running

marathons

they’re running mega marathons they’re

not doing 26 miles they’re doing a 100

150 miles at a time and apparently

without injury without problems the last

thing that’s remarkable about the tyro

Mata is all the things that we’re really

talking about today all the things that

we’re trying to come up using all our

technology and brain power to solve

things like heart disease and

cholesterol and cancer and crime and

warfare and violence and clinical

depression all this stuff that thought

about done what you’re talking about

they are free from all of these modern

illness so what’s the connection again

we’re talking about outliers there’s got

to be some kind of cause and effect

there well there are teams of scientists

at Harvard and the University of Utah

that are been

their brains and trying to figure out

what the tamada have known forever

they’re trying to solve those same kind

of mysteries and once again a mystery

wrapped inside of a mystery perhaps the

key to doctor to Lu and the total mata

is wrapped in three other mysteries

which go like this three things if you

have the answer up here and take the

microphone because nobody else knows the

answer and if you know it then you are

smarter than anybody else on planet

earth mystery number one is this two

million years ago the human brain

exploded in size

Australopithecus had a tiny little pea

brain suddenly humans show up you know

Homo erectus big old melon head to have

a brain of that size you need to have a

source of condensed caloric energy in

other words early humans are eating dead

animals no argument that’s a fact

the only problem is the first edged

weapons only appeared about 200,000

years ago so somehow for nearly two

million years we are killing animals

without any weapons now we’re not using

our strength because we are the biggest

sissies in the jungle yeah every other

animal stronger than we are they have

fangs they have claws they have

nimbleness than speed you know we think

Usain Bolt as fast Usain Bolt and get

his ass kicked by a squirrel okay we’re

not fast that that would be an Olympic

event turn a squirrel loose whoever

catches the squirrel you get a gold

medal so no weapons no speed no strength

no fans no claws how we killing these

animals mystery number one mystery

number two women have been the Olympics

for quite some time now but one thing is

remarkable about all women sprinters

they all suck they’re terrible there’s

not a fast woman on the planet and there

never has been the fastest woman to ever

run a mile did it in 415 I could throw a

rock and hit like a high school boy who

can run faster in 415 for some reason

you guys are just really slow but but

you get to the marathon we were just

talking about you guys have only been

allowed to run the marathon for 20 years

because prior to the 1980s medical

science said that if a woman tried to

run 26 miles does anyone know what would

happen if you try to run 26 miles why

you were banned from the marathon before

the 1980s what’s that here uterus would

be torn yes you would have torn

reproductive organs uterus would fall

out literally flat and buddy

now I’ve been to a lot of marathons and

I’ve yet to see any a so so I’m in 20

years that women have been allowed to

run the marathon in that very short

learning curve you guys have been gone

from you know broken organs up to the

fact that you’re only 10 minutes off the

male world record then you go beyond 26

miles into the distance that medical

science also told us will be fatal to

humans when Philippa T’s died when he

ran 26 miles you get the fifty and a

hundred miles and somebody it’s a

different game you can take a runner

like Ann tracing or Nikki Kimball or

Jenn Shelton you put them in a race of

50 or 100 miles against anybody in the

world it’s a coin toss who’s gonna win

I’ll give an example a couple years ago

Emily bear signed up for a race called

the hardrock 100 which tells you all you

need to know about the race they give

you 48 hours to finish this race well

Emily Baer 500 runners she finishes an

eighth place in the top ten even though

she stopped at all the aid stations to

breastfeed her baby during the race and

yet be 492 other people the last mystery

so why is it that women get stronger as

distances get longer okay the third

mystery is this at the University of

Utah they started tracking finishing

times for people running the marathon

and what they found is that if you start

running the marathon the age 19 you will

get progressively faster year by year

until you reach your peak at age 27 and

then after that you succumb to the the

the rigors of time and you get slower

and slower until eventually you’re back

to running the same speed you are at age

19 so about seven years eight years to

reach your peak and then gradually you

fall off your peak until you go back to

the starting point you would think it

might take that maybe eight years to go

back to the same speed maybe ten years

no it’s 45 years 64 year-old men and

women are running as fast as they were

at age 19 now I defy you to come up with

any other physical activity and please

don’t say golf something that actually

is hard wear geriatrics are performing

as well as they did as teenagers so you

have these three mysteries is there one

kind of piece in the puzzle which might

wrap all these things up you gotta be

really careful anytime someone looks

back in prehistory and tries to give you

some sort of global answer because it

being prehistory you know you can say

where the hell you want you

with it but I’ll submit this to you if

you put one piece in the middle of this

jigsaw puzzle suddenly it all starts to

form a coherent picture if you’re

wondering why it is that the town Ramada

don’t fight and don’t die of heart

disease why a poor Ethiopian woman in

dr. tulu can be the most compassion and

yet the most competitive and why we

somehow were able to find food without

weapons perhaps it’s because humans as

much as we like to think of ourselves as

masters of the universe actually evolved

as nothing more than a pack of hunting

dogs

maybe we evolved as a hunting pack

animal because the one advantage we have

in the wilderness it’s not our fangs

another clause in our speed the only

thing we do really really well is is

sweat we’re really good at being sweaty

and smelly better than any other mammal

on earth we can sweat really well but

the advantage of that that it’s a little

bit of a social discomfort is the fact

that when it comes to running under hot

heat for long distances

we’re superb we’re the best on the

planet you take a horse on a hot day and

after about five or six miles that horse

has a choice it’s either gonna breathe

or it’s gonna cool off but it ain’t

doing both we can so what if we evolved

as hunting pack animals what if the only

natural advantage we had in the world

was the fact that we can get together as

a group go out there on an African

savanna pick out an antelope and why was

a packed and run that thing to death

that’s all we could do we could run

really far or on a hot day

well that’s true a couple other things

had to be true as well the key to being

a part of a hunting pack is the word

pack if you go out by yourself and you

try and chase an antelope I guarantee

you there’s gonna be two cadavers out

there in the savanna you need a pack to

pull together you need to have those 64

65 year olds have doing this for a long

time to understand which antelope you’re

actually trying to catch you know the

herd explodes and the gathers back again

those expert trackers are got to be part

of the pack that can’t be 10 miles

behind you need to have the women and

the adolescents there because the two

times in your life you most benefit from

animal protein is when you are a nursing

mother and developing adolescent it

makes no sense to have the antelope over

there dead and people who want to eat it

50 miles away

they gotta be part of the pack you need

to have those 27 year-old studs at the

peak of their powers ready to drop the

kill I need to have those teenagers

there who should learn in the hole

all involved the pack stays together

another thing has to be true about this

pack this pack cannot be really

materialistic you can’t be holding all

your crap around trying to chase the

antelope you can’t be a pissed-off pack

you can’t be bearing grudges like I in

case that guy’s antelope he’s you know

it pissed me off Lemke’s his own

antelope the pack has got to be able to

swallow its ego be cooperative and

pulled together what you end up with in

other words is a culture remarkably

similar to the Tarahumara a tribe that

has remained unchanged since the Stone

Age it’s a really compelling argument

that maybe the third rule Mata are doing

exactly what all of us had done for 2

million years that it’s us in modern

times it sort of gone off the path you

know we look at running as this kind of

alien foreign thing you know this this

punishment you got to do because he ate

pizza the night before but maybe

something different maybe we’re the ones

who have taken this this natural

advantage we had and we spoiled it how

do we spoil it well how do we spoil

anything we try to cash in on it right

we try to can it and package it and make

it better and sell it to people and what

happened was we started creating these

fancy cushioned things which can make

running better called called running

shoes the reason I get personally pissed

off at running shoes because I bought a

million of them and I kept getting hurt

and I think if anybody in here runs and

I’ve had two conversation with power we

talked for 2 minutes backstage and she’s

talking about plantar fasciitis you

talked to a runner I guarantee within 30

seconds the conversation turns to injury

so if humans evolved as runners that’s

our one natural advantage then why are

we so bad at it why do we keep getting

hurt curious thing about running and

running injuries is that the running

injury is new to our time if you read

folklore and mythology any kind of myths

any kind of tall tales running is always

associated with freedom and vitality and

youthfulness and eternal vigor it’s only

in our lifetime that running has become

associated with fear and pain Geronimo

used to say that my only friends are my

legs I only trust my legs that’s because

an Apache triathlon used to be you run

50 miles across the desert engage in

hand-to-hand combat steal a bunch of

horses and slap leather for home ok

Geronimo was never saying oh you know

something my Achilles I’m tapering I got

take this week off or I need a cross

train

I didn’t do yoga I’m not ready you know

humans ran and ran all the time we are

here today we have our digital

technology all of our science comes from

the fact that our ancestors were able to

do something extraordinary every day

which is just rely on their naked feet

and legs to run long distances so how do

we get back to that again

oh I would submit to you the first thing

is get rid of all the packaging all the

sales all the marketing get rid of all

the stink and running shoes stop

focusing on urban marathons which you

know if you do for hours you saw it but

if you three three nine point five nine

you’re awesome because you qualify for

another race we need to get back to that

sense of playfulness and joyfulness and

I would say nakedness that has made the

thought of LaMotta one of the healthiest

and serene cultures in our time so

what’s the benefit so what so you know

you’d burn off the haagen-dazs from the

night before but maybe there’s another

benefit there as well you know without

getting a little too extreme about this

but imagine in a world where everybody

could go out the door and engage in the

kind of exercise that’s gonna make them

more relaxed more serene more healthy

burn off stress where you don’t come

back into your office a raging maniac

anymore we don’t go home with a lot of

stress on top of you again maybe there’s

something between what we are today and

what the turbo model have always been I

don’t say let’s go back to the copper

canyons and live on corn and mice which

is the total models preferred diet but

you know maybe there’s somewhere in

between and if we find that thing you

know maybe there is a big fat Nobel

Prize out there because if somebody

could find a way to restore that natural

ability that we all enjoyed for most of

our existence up until the 1970s or so

the benefits social and physical and and

political and and mental could be

astounding so what I’ve been seeing

today is there is kind of a growing

subculture of barefoot runners people

who have gotten rid of their shoes and

what they have found uniformly is you

get rid of the shoes you get rid of the

stress you get rid of the injuries and

the ailments and what you find is

something that thought about I’ve known

for a very long time that this could be

a whole lot of fun I’ve experienced it

personally myself I was injured all my

life and then in my early forties I got

rid of my shoes and my

have gone away too so hopefully it’s

something we can all benefit from and I

appreciate you guys listening to this

story thanks very much