Are we born to run?
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0:00 - 0:03Running -- it's basically just right, left, right, left -- yeah?
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0:03 - 0:05I mean, we've been doing it for two million years,
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0:05 - 0:08so it's kind of arrogant to assume
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0:08 - 0:10that I've got something to say
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0:10 - 0:13that hasn't been said and performed better a long time ago.
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0:13 - 0:15But the cool thing about running, as I've discovered,
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0:15 - 0:17is that something bizarre happens
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0:17 - 0:19in this activity all the time.
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0:19 - 0:22Case in point: A couple months ago, if you saw the New York City Marathon,
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0:22 - 0:24I guarantee you, you saw something
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0:24 - 0:27that no one has ever seen before.
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0:27 - 0:29An Ethiopian woman named Derartu Tulu
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0:29 - 0:31turns up at the starting line.
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0:31 - 0:33She's 37 years old,
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0:33 - 0:35she hasn't won a marathon of any kind in eight years,
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0:35 - 0:37and a few months previously
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0:37 - 0:39she almost died in childbirth.
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0:39 - 0:42Derartu Tulu was ready to hang it up and retire from the sport,
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0:42 - 0:44but she decided she'd go for broke
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0:44 - 0:46and try for one last big payday
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0:46 - 0:48in the marquee event,
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0:48 - 0:50the New York City Marathon.
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0:50 - 0:53Except -- bad news for Derartu Tulu -- some other people had the same idea,
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0:53 - 0:55including the Olympic gold medalist
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0:55 - 0:58and Paula Radcliffe, who is a monster,
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0:58 - 1:02the fastest woman marathoner in history by far.
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1:02 - 1:04Only 10 minutes off the men's world record,
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1:04 - 1:07Paula Radcliffe is essentially unbeatable.
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1:07 - 1:09That's her competition.
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1:09 - 1:12The gun goes off, and she's not even an underdog.
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1:12 - 1:14She's under the underdogs.
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1:14 - 1:16But the under-underdog hangs tough,
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1:16 - 1:19and 22 miles into a 26-mile race,
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1:19 - 1:21there is Derartu Tulu
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1:21 - 1:23up there with the lead pack.
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1:23 - 1:26Now this is when something really bizarre happens.
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1:26 - 1:29Paula Radcliffe, the one person who is sure to snatch the big paycheck
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1:29 - 1:32out of Derartu Tulu's under-underdog hands,
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1:32 - 1:35suddenly grabs her leg and starts to fall back.
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1:35 - 1:37So we all know what to do in this situation, right?
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1:37 - 1:39You give her a quick crack in the teeth with your elbow
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1:39 - 1:41and blaze for the finish line.
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1:42 - 1:44Derartu Tulu ruins the script.
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1:44 - 1:46Instead of taking off,
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1:46 - 1:48she falls back, and she grabs Paula Radcliffe,
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1:48 - 1:50says, "Come on. Come with us. You can do it."
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1:50 - 1:52So Paula Radcliffe, unfortunately, does it.
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1:52 - 1:54She catches up with the lead pack
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1:54 - 1:56and is pushing toward the finish line.
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1:56 - 1:58But then she falls back again.
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1:58 - 2:00And the second time Derartu Tulu grabs her and tries to pull her.
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2:00 - 2:02And Paula Radcliffe at that point says,
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2:02 - 2:04"I'm done. Go."
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2:04 - 2:07So that's a fantastic story, and we all know how it ends.
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2:07 - 2:09She loses the check,
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2:09 - 2:11but she goes home with something bigger and more important.
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2:11 - 2:14Except Derartu Tulu ruins the script again --
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2:14 - 2:17instead of losing, she blazes past the lead pack and wins,
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2:17 - 2:19wins the New York City Marathon,
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2:19 - 2:21goes home with a big fat check.
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2:21 - 2:23It's a heartwarming story,
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2:23 - 2:25but if you drill a little bit deeper,
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2:25 - 2:28you've got to sort of wonder about what exactly was going on there.
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2:28 - 2:30When you have two outliers in one organism,
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2:30 - 2:32it's not a coincidence.
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2:32 - 2:35When you have someone who is more competitive and more compassionate
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2:35 - 2:38than anybody else in the race, again, it's not a coincidence.
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2:38 - 2:41You show me a creature with webbed feet and gills;
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2:41 - 2:43somehow water's involved.
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2:43 - 2:46Someone with that kind of heart, there's some kind of connection there.
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2:46 - 2:48And the answer to it, I think,
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2:48 - 2:51can be found down in the Copper Canyons of Mexico,
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2:51 - 2:53where there's a tribe, a reclusive tribe,
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2:53 - 2:55called the Tarahumara Indians.
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2:55 - 2:58Now the Tarahumara are remarkable for three things.
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2:58 - 3:00Number one is,
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3:00 - 3:02they have been living essentially unchanged
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3:02 - 3:04for the past 400 years.
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3:04 - 3:07When the conquistadors arrived in North America you had two choices:
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3:07 - 3:10you either fight back and engage or you could take off.
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3:10 - 3:12The Mayans and Aztecs engaged,
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3:12 - 3:15which is why there are very few Mayans and Aztecs.
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3:15 - 3:17The Tarahumara had a different strategy.
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3:17 - 3:19They took off and hid
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3:19 - 3:21in this labyrinthine, networking,
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3:21 - 3:23spiderwebbing system of canyons
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3:23 - 3:25called the Copper Canyons,
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3:25 - 3:28and there they remained since the 1600s --
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3:28 - 3:32essentially the same way they've always been.
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3:32 - 3:35The second thing remarkable about the Tarahumara
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3:35 - 3:38is, deep into old age -- 70 to 80 years old --
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3:38 - 3:40these guys aren't running marathons;
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3:40 - 3:42they're running mega-marathons.
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3:42 - 3:44They're not doing 26 miles;
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3:44 - 3:47they're doing 100, 150 miles at a time,
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3:47 - 3:50and apparently without injury, without problems.
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3:50 - 3:52The last thing that's remarkable about the Tarahumara
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3:52 - 3:54is that all the things that we're going to be talking about today,
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3:54 - 3:56all the things that we're trying to come up with
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3:56 - 3:59using all of our technology and brain power to solve --
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3:59 - 4:01things like heart disease and cholesterol and cancer
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4:01 - 4:04and crime and warfare and violence and clinical depression --
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4:04 - 4:07all this stuff, the Tarahumara don't know what you're talking about.
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4:07 - 4:09They are free
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4:09 - 4:11from all of these modern ailments.
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4:11 - 4:13So what's the connection?
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4:13 - 4:15Again, we're talking about outliers --
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4:15 - 4:17there's got to be some kind of cause and effect there.
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4:17 - 4:19Well, there are teams of scientists
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4:19 - 4:21at Harvard and the University of Utah
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4:21 - 4:23that are bending their brains to try to figure out
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4:23 - 4:26what the Tarahumara have known forever.
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4:26 - 4:29They're trying to solve those same kinds of mysteries.
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4:29 - 4:32And once again, a mystery wrapped inside of a mystery --
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4:32 - 4:35perhaps the key to Derartu Tulu and the Tarahumara
-
4:35 - 4:38is wrapped in three other mysteries, which go like this:
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4:38 - 4:40three things -- if you have the answer, come up and take the microphone,
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4:40 - 4:42because nobody else knows the answer.
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4:42 - 4:45And if you know it, then you are smarter than anybody else on planet Earth.
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4:45 - 4:47Mystery number one is this:
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4:47 - 4:50Two million years ago the human brain exploded in size.
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4:50 - 4:52Australopithecus had a tiny little pea brain.
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4:52 - 4:54Suddenly humans show up -- Homo erectus --
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4:54 - 4:56big, old melon-head.
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4:56 - 4:58To have a brain of that size,
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4:58 - 5:01you need to have a source of condensed caloric energy.
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5:01 - 5:03In other words, early humans are eating dead animals --
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5:03 - 5:05no argument, that's a fact.
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5:05 - 5:07The only problem is,
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5:07 - 5:10the first edged weapons only appeared about 200,000 years ago.
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5:10 - 5:13So, somehow, for nearly two million years,
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5:13 - 5:16we are killing animals without any weapons.
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5:16 - 5:18Now we're not using our strength
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5:18 - 5:20because we are the biggest sissies in the jungle.
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5:20 - 5:22Every other animal is stronger than we are --
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5:22 - 5:25they have fangs, they have claws, they have nimbleness, they have speed.
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5:25 - 5:28We think Usain Bolt is fast. Usain Bolt can get his ass kicked by a squirrel.
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5:28 - 5:30We're not fast.
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5:30 - 5:32That would be an Olympic event: turn a squirrel loose --
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5:32 - 5:35whoever catches the squirrel, you get a gold medal.
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5:35 - 5:38So no weapons, no speed, no strength, no fangs, no claws --
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5:38 - 5:41how were we killing these animals? Mystery number one.
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5:41 - 5:43Mystery number two:
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5:43 - 5:46Women have been in the Olympics for quite some time now,
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5:46 - 5:48but one thing that's remarkable about all women sprinters --
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5:48 - 5:50they all suck; they're terrible.
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5:50 - 5:52There's not a fast woman on the planet
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5:52 - 5:54and there never has been.
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5:54 - 5:57The fastest woman to ever run a mile did it in 4:15.
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5:57 - 5:59I could throw a rock and hit a high school boy
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5:59 - 6:01who can run faster than 4:15.
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6:01 - 6:03For some reason you guys are just really slow.
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6:03 - 6:05(Laughter)
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6:05 - 6:08But you get to the marathon we were just talking about --
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6:08 - 6:10you guys have only been allowed to run the marathon for 20 years.
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6:10 - 6:12Because, prior to the 1980s,
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6:12 - 6:15medical science said that if a woman tried to run 26 miles --
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6:15 - 6:17does anyone know what would happen if you tried to run 26 miles,
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6:17 - 6:21why you were banned from the marathon before the 1980s?
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6:21 - 6:24(Audience Member: Her uterus would be torn.) Her uterus would be torn.
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6:24 - 6:26Yes. You would have torn reproductive organs.
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6:26 - 6:29The uterus would fall out, literally fall out of the body.
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6:29 - 6:31Now I've been to a lot of marathons,
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6:31 - 6:33and I've yet to see any ...
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6:33 - 6:36(Laughter)
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6:36 - 6:39So it's only been 20 years that women have been allowed to run the marathon.
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6:39 - 6:41In that very short learning curve,
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6:41 - 6:44you guys have gone from broken organs
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6:44 - 6:46up to the fact that you're only 10 minutes off
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6:46 - 6:48the male world record.
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6:48 - 6:50Then you go beyond 26 miles,
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6:50 - 6:53into the distance that medical science also told us would be fatal to humans --
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6:53 - 6:55remember Pheidippides died when he ran 26 miles --
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6:55 - 6:57you get to 50 and 100 miles,
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6:57 - 6:59and suddenly it's a different game.
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6:59 - 7:02You can take a runner like Ann Trason, or Nikki Kimball, or Jenn Shelton,
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7:02 - 7:05you put them in a race of 50 or 100 miles against anybody in the world
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7:05 - 7:07and it's a coin toss who's going to win.
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7:07 - 7:09I'll give you an example.
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7:09 - 7:11A couple years ago, Emily Baer signed up for a race
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7:11 - 7:13called the Hardrock 100,
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7:13 - 7:16which tells you all you need to know about the race.
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7:16 - 7:18They give you 48 hours to finish this race.
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7:18 - 7:20Well Emily Baer -- 500 runners --
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7:20 - 7:22she finishes in eighth place, in the top 10,
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7:22 - 7:24even though she stopped at all the aid stations
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7:24 - 7:27to breastfeed her baby during the race --
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7:27 - 7:29and yet, beat 492 other people.
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7:29 - 7:31So why is it that women get stronger
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7:31 - 7:33as distances get longer?
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7:33 - 7:35The third mystery is this:
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7:35 - 7:38At the University of Utah, they started tracking finishing times
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7:38 - 7:40for people running the marathon.
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7:40 - 7:42And what they found
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7:42 - 7:44is that, if you start running the marathon at age 19,
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7:44 - 7:46you will get progressively faster, year by year,
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7:46 - 7:48until you reach your peak at age 27.
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7:48 - 7:50And then after that, you succumb
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7:50 - 7:52to the rigors of time.
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7:52 - 7:54And you'll get slower and slower,
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7:54 - 7:57until eventually you're back to running the same speed you were at age 19.
-
7:57 - 7:59So about seven years, eight years to reach your peak,
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7:59 - 8:01and then gradually you fall off your peak,
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8:01 - 8:04until you go back to the starting point.
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8:04 - 8:07You would think it might take eight years to go back to the same speed,
-
8:07 - 8:10maybe 10 years -- no, it's 45 years.
-
8:10 - 8:1264-year-old men and women
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8:12 - 8:15are running as fast as they were at age 19.
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8:15 - 8:18Now I defy you to come up with any other physical activity --
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8:18 - 8:22and please don't say golf -- something that actually is hard --
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8:22 - 8:24where geriatrics are performing
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8:24 - 8:27as well as they did as teenagers.
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8:27 - 8:29So you have these three mysteries.
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8:29 - 8:31Is there one piece in the puzzle
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8:31 - 8:33which might wrap all these things up?
-
8:33 - 8:35You've got to be really careful any time
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8:35 - 8:38someone looks back in prehistory and tries to give you some sort of global answer,
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8:38 - 8:40because, it being prehistory,
-
8:40 - 8:42you can say whatever the hell you want and get away with it.
-
8:42 - 8:44But I'll submit this to you:
-
8:44 - 8:46If you put one piece in the middle of this jigsaw puzzle,
-
8:46 - 8:49suddenly it all starts to form a coherent picture.
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8:49 - 8:51If you wonder, why it is the Tarahumara don't fight
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8:51 - 8:53and don't die of heart disease,
-
8:53 - 8:56why a poor Ethiopian woman named Derartu Tulu
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8:56 - 8:59can be the most compassionate and yet the most competitive,
-
8:59 - 9:01and why we somehow were able
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9:01 - 9:03to find food without weapons,
-
9:03 - 9:05perhaps it's because humans,
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9:05 - 9:08as much as we like to think of ourselves as masters of the universe,
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9:08 - 9:10actually evolved as nothing more
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9:10 - 9:12than a pack of hunting dogs.
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9:12 - 9:14Maybe we evolved
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9:14 - 9:16as a hunting pack animal.
-
9:16 - 9:18Because the one advantage we have in the wilderness --
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9:18 - 9:20again, it's not our fangs and our claws and our speed --
-
9:20 - 9:23the only thing we do really, really well is sweat.
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9:23 - 9:26We're really good at being sweaty and smelly.
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9:26 - 9:29Better than any other mammal on Earth, we can sweat really well.
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9:29 - 9:31But the advantage
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9:31 - 9:33of that little bit of social discomfort
-
9:33 - 9:35is the fact that, when it comes to running
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9:35 - 9:38under hot heat for long distances,
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9:38 - 9:41we're superb, we're the best on the planet.
-
9:41 - 9:43You take a horse on a hot day,
-
9:43 - 9:45and after about five or six miles, that horse has a choice.
-
9:45 - 9:48It's either going to breathe or it's going to cool off,
-
9:48 - 9:50but it ain't doing both -- we can.
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9:50 - 9:53So what if we evolved as hunting pack animals?
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9:53 - 9:57What if the only natural advantage we had in the world
-
9:57 - 9:59was the fact that we could get together as a group,
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9:59 - 10:02go out there on that African Savannah, pick out an antelope
-
10:02 - 10:05and go out as a pack and run that thing to death?
-
10:05 - 10:07That's all we could do.
-
10:07 - 10:09We could run really far on a hot day.
-
10:09 - 10:12Well if that's true, a couple other things had to be true as well.
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10:12 - 10:15The key to being part of a hunting pack is the word "pack."
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10:15 - 10:17If you go out by yourself, and you try to chase an antelope,
-
10:17 - 10:20I guarantee you there's going to be two cadavers out there in the Savannah.
-
10:20 - 10:22You need a pack to pull together.
-
10:22 - 10:24You need to have those 64-, 65-year-olds
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10:24 - 10:26who have been doing this for a long time
-
10:26 - 10:28to understand which antelope you're actually trying to catch.
-
10:28 - 10:31The herd explodes and it gathers back again.
-
10:31 - 10:33Those expert trackers have got to be part of the pack.
-
10:33 - 10:35They can't be 10 miles behind.
-
10:35 - 10:37You need to have the women and the adolescents there
-
10:37 - 10:40because the two times in your life you most benefit from animal protein
-
10:40 - 10:43is when you are a nursing mother and a developing adolescent.
-
10:43 - 10:45It makes no sense to have the antelope over there dead
-
10:45 - 10:47and the people who want to eat it 50 miles away.
-
10:47 - 10:49They need to be part of the pack.
-
10:49 - 10:51You need to have those 27-year-old studs at the peak of their powers
-
10:51 - 10:53ready to drop the kill,
-
10:53 - 10:55and you need to have those teenagers there
-
10:55 - 10:57who are learning the whole thing all involved.
-
10:57 - 10:59The pack stays together.
-
10:59 - 11:02Another thing that has to be true about this pack: this pack cannot be really materialistic.
-
11:02 - 11:05You can't be hauling all your crap around, trying to chase the antelope.
-
11:05 - 11:08You can't be a pissed-off pack. You can't be bearing grudges,
-
11:08 - 11:10like, "I'm not chasing that guy's antelope.
-
11:10 - 11:12He pissed me off. Let him go chase his own antelope."
-
11:12 - 11:15The pack has got to be able to swallow its ego,
-
11:15 - 11:17be cooperative and pull together.
-
11:17 - 11:20What you end up with, in other words,
-
11:20 - 11:22is a culture remarkably similar
-
11:22 - 11:24to the Tarahumara --
-
11:24 - 11:26a tribe that has remained unchanged
-
11:26 - 11:28since the Stone Age.
-
11:28 - 11:30It's a really compelling argument
-
11:30 - 11:32that maybe the Tarahumara are doing
-
11:32 - 11:35exactly what all of us had done for two million years,
-
11:35 - 11:38that it's us in modern times who have sort of gone off the path.
-
11:38 - 11:41You know, we look at running as this kind of alien, foreign thing,
-
11:41 - 11:44this punishment you've got to do because you ate pizza the night before.
-
11:44 - 11:46But maybe it's something different.
-
11:46 - 11:49Maybe we're the ones who have taken this natural advantage we had
-
11:49 - 11:51and we spoiled it.
-
11:51 - 11:54How do we spoil it? Well how do we spoil anything?
-
11:54 - 11:56We try to cash in on it.
-
11:56 - 11:58We try to can it and package it and make it "better"
-
11:58 - 12:00and sell it to people.
-
12:00 - 12:02And what happened was we started creating
-
12:02 - 12:04these fancy cushioned things,
-
12:04 - 12:07which can make running "better," called running shoes.
-
12:07 - 12:10The reason I get personally pissed-off about running shoes
-
12:10 - 12:13is because I bought a million of them and I kept getting hurt.
-
12:13 - 12:15And I think that, if anybody in here runs --
-
12:15 - 12:17and I just had a conversation with Carol;
-
12:17 - 12:20we talked for two minutes backstage, and she's talking about plantar fasciitis.
-
12:20 - 12:23You talk to a runner, I guarantee, within 30 seconds,
-
12:23 - 12:25the conversation turns to injury.
-
12:25 - 12:28So if humans evolved as runners, if that's our one natural advantage,
-
12:28 - 12:31why are we so bad at it? Why do we keep getting hurt?
-
12:31 - 12:33Curious thing about running and running injuries
-
12:33 - 12:36is that the running injury is new to our time.
-
12:36 - 12:38If you read folklore and mythology,
-
12:38 - 12:40any kind of myths, any kind of tall tales,
-
12:40 - 12:42running is always associated
-
12:42 - 12:45with freedom and vitality and youthfulness and eternal vigor.
-
12:45 - 12:47It's only in our lifetime
-
12:47 - 12:49that running has become associated with fear and pain.
-
12:49 - 12:51Geronimo used to say
-
12:51 - 12:54that, "My only friends are my legs. I only trust my legs."
-
12:54 - 12:56That's because an Apache triathlon
-
12:56 - 12:58used to be you'd run 50 miles across the desert,
-
12:58 - 13:00engage in hand-to-hand combat, steal a bunch of horses
-
13:00 - 13:02and slap leather for home.
-
13:02 - 13:04Geronimo was never saying, "Ah, you know something,
-
13:04 - 13:07my achilles -- I'm tapering. I got to take this week off,"
-
13:07 - 13:09or "I need to cross-train.
-
13:09 - 13:12I didn't do yoga. I'm not ready."
-
13:12 - 13:14Humans ran and ran all the time.
-
13:14 - 13:16We are here today. We have our digital technology.
-
13:16 - 13:18All of our science comes from the fact
-
13:18 - 13:20that our ancestors were able
-
13:20 - 13:22to do something extraordinary every day,
-
13:22 - 13:24which was just rely on their naked feet and legs
-
13:24 - 13:26to run long distances.
-
13:26 - 13:28So how do we get back to that again?
-
13:28 - 13:30Well, I would submit to you the first thing is
-
13:30 - 13:33get rid of all packaging, all the sales, all the marketing.
-
13:33 - 13:35Get rid of all the stinking running shoes.
-
13:35 - 13:37Stop focusing on urban marathons,
-
13:37 - 13:40which, if you do four hours, you suck.
-
13:40 - 13:42If you do 3:59:59, you're awesome,
-
13:42 - 13:44because you qualified for another race.
-
13:44 - 13:47We need to get back to that sense of playfulness and joyfulness
-
13:47 - 13:50and, I would say, nakedness,
-
13:50 - 13:52that has made the Tarahumara
-
13:52 - 13:55one of the healthiest and serene cultures in our time.
-
13:55 - 13:57So what's the benefit? So what?
-
13:57 - 14:00So you burn off the Haagen-Dazs from the night before?
-
14:00 - 14:03But maybe there's another benefit there as well.
-
14:03 - 14:06Without getting a little too extreme about this,
-
14:06 - 14:08imagine a world
-
14:08 - 14:10where everybody could go out their door
-
14:10 - 14:12and engage in the kind of exercise
-
14:12 - 14:15that's going to make them more relaxed, more serene,
-
14:15 - 14:17more healthy,
-
14:17 - 14:19burn off stress --
-
14:19 - 14:21where you don't come back into your office a raging maniac anymore,
-
14:21 - 14:23where you don't go back home with a lot of stress on top of you again.
-
14:23 - 14:26Maybe there's something between what we are today
-
14:26 - 14:29and what the Tarahumara have always been.
-
14:29 - 14:31I don't say let's go back to the Copper Canyons
-
14:31 - 14:34and live on corn and maize, which is the Tarahumara's preferred diet,
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14:34 - 14:36but maybe there's somewhere in between.
-
14:36 - 14:38And if we find that thing,
-
14:38 - 14:41maybe there is a big fat Nobel Prize out there.
-
14:41 - 14:44Because if somebody could find a way
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14:44 - 14:46to restore that natural ability
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14:46 - 14:48that we all enjoyed for most of our existence,
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14:48 - 14:50up until the 1970s or so,
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14:50 - 14:52the benefits, social and physical
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14:52 - 14:55and political and mental,
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14:55 - 14:57could be astounding.
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14:57 - 15:00So what I've been seeing today is there is a growing subculture
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15:00 - 15:03of barefoot runners, people who got rid of their shoes.
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15:03 - 15:05And what they have found uniformly is
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15:05 - 15:08you get rid of the shoes, you get rid of the stress,
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15:08 - 15:10you get rid of the injuries and the ailments.
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15:10 - 15:12And what you find is something
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15:12 - 15:14the Tarahumara have known for a very long time,
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15:14 - 15:16that this can be a whole lot of fun.
-
15:16 - 15:18I've experienced it personally myself.
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15:18 - 15:21I was injured all my life, and then in my early 40s I got rid of my shoes
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15:21 - 15:23and my running ailments have gone away too.
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15:23 - 15:25So hopefully it's something we can all benefit from.
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15:25 - 15:28And I appreciate you guys listening to this story. Thanks very much.
-
15:28 - 15:30(Applause)
- Title:
- Are we born to run?
- Speaker:
- Christopher McDougall
- Description:
-
Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive -- and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 15:31
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Are we born to run? | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Are we born to run? | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Are we born to run? | ||
TED edited English subtitles for Are we born to run? | ||
TED added a translation |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 11/24/2016.