WEBVTT

00:00:06.569 --> 00:00:08.697
I'm going to talk about
reinventing running.

00:00:08.722 --> 00:00:11.585
You know, it's basically just
right, left, right, left, yeah?

00:00:11.595 --> 00:00:14.024
I mean, we've been doing it
for two million years,

00:00:14.048 --> 00:00:17.594
so it's kind of arrogant to assume
that I've got something to say

00:00:17.618 --> 00:00:20.838
that hasn't been said and performed
better a long time ago.

00:00:20.933 --> 00:00:23.491
But the cool thing about running,
as I've discovered,

00:00:23.516 --> 00:00:27.101
is that something bizarre happens
in this activity all the time.

00:00:27.125 --> 00:00:30.700
Case in point: A couple months ago,
if you saw the New York City Marathon,

00:00:30.724 --> 00:00:34.312
I guarantee you, you saw something
that no one has ever seen before.

00:00:34.927 --> 00:00:39.281
An Ethiopian woman named Derartu Tulu
turns up at the starting line.

00:00:39.962 --> 00:00:41.314
She's 37 years old.

00:00:41.338 --> 00:00:44.024
She hasn't won a marathon
of any kind in eight years,

00:00:44.048 --> 00:00:45.476
and a few months previously,

00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:47.476
she had almost died in childbirth.

00:00:47.500 --> 00:00:50.991
Derartu Tulu was ready to hang it up
and retire from the sport,

00:00:51.015 --> 00:00:52.887
but she decided she'd go for broke

00:00:52.911 --> 00:00:56.699
and try for one last big payday
in the marquee event,

00:00:56.723 --> 00:00:58.338
the New York City Marathon.

00:00:58.362 --> 00:01:02.076
Except -- bad news for Derartu Tulu --
some other people had the same idea,

00:01:02.100 --> 00:01:03.954
including the Olympic gold medalist,

00:01:03.978 --> 00:01:07.076
and Paula Radcliffe, who is a monster,

00:01:07.100 --> 00:01:10.672
the fastest woman marathoner
in history by far.

00:01:10.696 --> 00:01:12.973
Only 10 minutes
off the men's world record,

00:01:12.997 --> 00:01:15.901
Paula Radcliffe is essentially unbeatable.

00:01:16.543 --> 00:01:18.076
That's her competition.

00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:21.048
The gun goes off, and -- I mean,
she's not even an underdog;

00:01:21.072 --> 00:01:22.887
she's, like, under the underdogs.

00:01:22.911 --> 00:01:24.956
But the under-underdog hangs tough,

00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:27.791
and 22 miles into a 26-mile race,

00:01:27.815 --> 00:01:30.711
there is Derartu Tulu,
up there with the lead pack.

00:01:31.504 --> 00:01:34.195
Now, this is when something
really bizarre happens.

00:01:34.219 --> 00:01:37.981
Paula Radcliffe, the one person
who is sure to snatch the big paycheck

00:01:38.005 --> 00:01:41.076
from Derartu Tulu's under-underdog hands,

00:01:41.100 --> 00:01:43.497
suddenly grabs her leg
and starts to fall back.

00:01:43.521 --> 00:01:45.932
So we all know what to do
in this situation, right?

00:01:45.956 --> 00:01:48.642
You give her a quick crack
in the teeth with your elbow

00:01:48.666 --> 00:01:50.165
and blaze for the finish line.

00:01:50.489 --> 00:01:52.679
Derartu Tulu ruins the script.

00:01:52.703 --> 00:01:54.152
Instead of taking off,

00:01:54.176 --> 00:01:56.425
she falls back and she grabs
Paula Radcliffe,

00:01:56.449 --> 00:01:58.787
and says, "Come on.
Come with us. You can do it."

00:01:58.811 --> 00:02:01.222
So Paula Radcliffe,
unfortunately, does it.

00:02:01.246 --> 00:02:02.859
She catches up with the lead pack

00:02:02.883 --> 00:02:04.746
and is pushing toward the finish line.

00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:06.289
But then she falls back again.

00:02:06.313 --> 00:02:09.305
The second time, Derartu Tulu
grabs her and tries to pull her.

00:02:09.329 --> 00:02:12.167
And Paula Radcliffe, at that point,
says, "I'm done. Go."

00:02:12.711 --> 00:02:15.467
So that's a fantastic story,
and we all know how it ends.

00:02:15.491 --> 00:02:16.781
She loses the check,

00:02:16.805 --> 00:02:19.730
but she goes home with something
bigger and more important.

00:02:19.754 --> 00:02:22.250
Except Derartu Tulu
ruins the script again.

00:02:22.274 --> 00:02:25.774
Instead of losing, she blazes
past the lead pack and wins.

00:02:25.798 --> 00:02:27.460
Wins the New York City Marathon,

00:02:27.484 --> 00:02:29.118
goes home with a big fat check.

00:02:29.877 --> 00:02:31.413
It's a heartwarming story,

00:02:31.437 --> 00:02:33.414
but if you drill a little bit deeper,

00:02:33.438 --> 00:02:36.846
you've got to sort of wonder
about what exactly was going on there.

00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:39.005
When you have two outliers
in one organism,

00:02:39.029 --> 00:02:40.403
it's not a coincidence.

00:02:40.427 --> 00:02:43.918
When you have someone who is more
competitive and more compassionate

00:02:43.942 --> 00:02:46.919
than anybody else in the race,
again, it's not a coincidence.

00:02:46.943 --> 00:02:49.386
You show me a creature
with webbed feet and gills;

00:02:49.410 --> 00:02:51.058
somehow water's involved.

00:02:51.082 --> 00:02:54.464
Someone with that kind of heart,
there's some kind of connection there.

00:02:54.488 --> 00:02:57.055
And the answer to it,
I think, can be found

00:02:57.079 --> 00:02:59.488
down in the Copper Canyons of Mexico,

00:02:59.512 --> 00:03:03.389
where there's a reclusive tribe,
called the Tarahumara Indians.

00:03:03.413 --> 00:03:06.972
Now, the Tarahumara
are remarkable for three things.

00:03:06.996 --> 00:03:08.471
Number one is:

00:03:08.495 --> 00:03:12.701
they have been living essentially
unchanged for the past 400 years.

00:03:12.725 --> 00:03:16.339
When the conquistadors arrived
in North America you had two choices:

00:03:16.363 --> 00:03:19.076
you either fight back and engage
or you could take off.

00:03:19.100 --> 00:03:20.958
The Mayans and Aztecs engaged,

00:03:20.982 --> 00:03:23.428
which is why there are very few
Mayans and Aztecs.

00:03:23.452 --> 00:03:25.437
The Tarahumara had a different strategy.

00:03:25.461 --> 00:03:27.325
They took off and hid

00:03:27.349 --> 00:03:32.204
in this labyrinthine, networking,
spider-webbing system of canyons

00:03:32.228 --> 00:03:33.629
called the Copper Canyons.

00:03:33.653 --> 00:03:37.076
And there they've remained
since the 1600s,

00:03:37.100 --> 00:03:39.703
essentially the same way
they've always been.

00:03:40.521 --> 00:03:43.678
The second thing remarkable
about the Tarahumara is:

00:03:43.702 --> 00:03:46.830
deep into old age -- 70 to 80 years old --

00:03:46.854 --> 00:03:48.831
these guys aren't running marathons;

00:03:48.855 --> 00:03:50.702
they're running mega-marathons.

00:03:50.726 --> 00:03:52.371
They're not doing 26 miles,

00:03:52.395 --> 00:03:55.017
they're doing 100, 150 miles at a time,

00:03:55.041 --> 00:03:57.510
and apparently without injury,
without problems.

00:03:58.156 --> 00:04:00.872
The last thing that's remarkable
about the Tarahumara is:

00:04:00.896 --> 00:04:03.413
all the things we're going
to be talking about today,

00:04:03.437 --> 00:04:06.242
all the things we're trying to use
all of our technology

00:04:06.266 --> 00:04:07.604
and brain power to solve --

00:04:07.628 --> 00:04:10.178
things like heart disease
and cholesterol and cancer;

00:04:10.202 --> 00:04:13.800
crime, warfare and violence;
clinical depression -- all this stuff --

00:04:13.824 --> 00:04:16.296
the Tarahumara don't know
what you're talking about.

00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:20.076
They are free from all
of these modern ailments.

00:04:20.928 --> 00:04:22.157
So what's the connection?

00:04:22.181 --> 00:04:23.919
Again, we're talking about outliers;

00:04:23.943 --> 00:04:26.234
there's got to be some kind
of cause and effect.

00:04:26.258 --> 00:04:30.076
Well, there are teams of scientists
at Harvard and the University of Utah

00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:32.680
that are bending their brains
and trying to figure out

00:04:32.704 --> 00:04:34.647
what the Tarahumara have known forever.

00:04:34.671 --> 00:04:37.335
They're trying to solve
those same kinds of mysteries.

00:04:37.359 --> 00:04:40.782
And once again, a mystery
wrapped inside of a mystery --

00:04:40.806 --> 00:04:43.925
perhaps the key to Derartu Tulu
and the Tarahumara

00:04:43.949 --> 00:04:46.586
is wrapped in three other
mysteries, which go like this:

00:04:46.610 --> 00:04:50.019
Three things -- if you have the answer,
come up and take the microphone,

00:04:50.043 --> 00:04:51.872
because nobody else knows the answer.

00:04:51.896 --> 00:04:54.781
If you know it, you're smarter
than anybody on planet Earth.

00:04:54.805 --> 00:04:56.228
Mystery number one is this:

00:04:56.252 --> 00:04:59.006
Two million years ago,
the human brain exploded in size.

00:04:59.030 --> 00:05:01.141
Australopithecus
had a tiny little pea brain.

00:05:01.165 --> 00:05:04.211
Suddenly humans show up,
Homo erectus, big old melon head.

00:05:04.235 --> 00:05:05.758
To have a brain of that size,

00:05:05.782 --> 00:05:09.385
you need to have a source
of condensed caloric energy.

00:05:09.409 --> 00:05:12.030
In other words, early humans
are eating dead animals --

00:05:12.054 --> 00:05:13.386
no argument, that's a fact.

00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:15.317
The only problem is,

00:05:15.341 --> 00:05:18.931
the first edged weapons only appeared
about 200,000 years ago.

00:05:18.955 --> 00:05:21.650
So somehow, for nearly two million years,

00:05:21.674 --> 00:05:24.345
we are killing animals
without any weapons.

00:05:24.369 --> 00:05:26.069
Now, we're not using our strength,

00:05:26.093 --> 00:05:28.451
because we are the biggest
sissies in the jungle.

00:05:28.475 --> 00:05:30.517
Every other animal
is stronger than we are,

00:05:30.541 --> 00:05:33.971
they have fangs, they have claws,
they have nimbleness, they have speed.

00:05:33.995 --> 00:05:35.366
We think Usain Bolt is fast.

00:05:35.390 --> 00:05:37.734
Usain Bolt can get
his ass kicked by a squirrel.

00:05:37.758 --> 00:05:38.909
We're not fast.

00:05:38.933 --> 00:05:40.424
That would be an Olympic event:

00:05:40.448 --> 00:05:43.285
turn a squirrel loose,
whoever catches it gets a gold medal.

00:05:43.309 --> 00:05:44.324
(Laughter)

00:05:44.348 --> 00:05:47.066
So no weapons, no speed,
no strength, no fangs, no claws.

00:05:47.090 --> 00:05:49.732
How were we killing these animals?
Mystery number one.

00:05:49.756 --> 00:05:51.197
Mystery number two:

00:05:51.221 --> 00:05:54.274
Women have been in the Olympics
for quite some time now,

00:05:54.298 --> 00:05:57.106
but one thing that's remarkable
about all women sprinters:

00:05:57.130 --> 00:05:58.885
they all suck; they're terrible.

00:05:58.909 --> 00:06:02.637
There's not a fast woman on the planet
and there never has been.

00:06:02.661 --> 00:06:05.638
The fastest woman
to ever run a mile did it in 4:15.

00:06:05.662 --> 00:06:07.880
I could throw a rock
and hit a high-school boy

00:06:07.904 --> 00:06:09.400
who can run faster than 4:15.

00:06:09.424 --> 00:06:11.615
For some reason,
you guys are just really slow.

00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:12.797
But --

00:06:12.821 --> 00:06:13.880
(Laughter)

00:06:13.904 --> 00:06:16.650
But, you get to the marathon
we were just talking about --

00:06:16.674 --> 00:06:19.452
you've only been allowed to run
the marathon for 20 years,

00:06:19.476 --> 00:06:21.747
because prior to the 1980s,
medical science said

00:06:21.771 --> 00:06:25.135
if a woman tried to run 26 miles --
does anyone know what would happen

00:06:25.159 --> 00:06:26.592
if you tried to run 26 miles?

00:06:26.616 --> 00:06:29.232
Why you were banned
from the marathon before the 1980s?

00:06:29.256 --> 00:06:31.342
Audience Member: Her uterus would be torn.

00:06:31.366 --> 00:06:33.894
Christopher McDougall:
Her uterus would be torn, yes.

00:06:33.918 --> 00:06:35.158
Torn reproductive organs.

00:06:35.182 --> 00:06:37.441
The uterus would literally
fall out of the body.

00:06:37.465 --> 00:06:38.486
(Laughter)

00:06:38.510 --> 00:06:40.329
Now, I've been to a lot of marathons,

00:06:40.353 --> 00:06:41.994
and I've yet to see any ...

00:06:42.018 --> 00:06:44.927
(Laughter)

00:06:44.951 --> 00:06:46.318
So it's only been 20 years

00:06:46.342 --> 00:06:48.721
that women have been allowed
to run the marathon.

00:06:48.745 --> 00:06:52.766
In that very short learning curve,
you've gone from broken organs

00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:56.591
up to the fact that you're only 10 minutes
off the male world record.

00:06:56.615 --> 00:06:58.920
Then you go beyond 26 miles,
into the distance

00:06:58.944 --> 00:07:01.877
that medical science also told us
would be fatal to humans --

00:07:01.901 --> 00:07:04.267
remember Pheidippides died
when he ran 26 miles --

00:07:04.291 --> 00:07:07.559
you get to 50 and 100 miles,
and suddenly, it's a different game.

00:07:07.583 --> 00:07:10.826
You take a runner like Ann Trason
or Nikki Kimball or Jenn Shelton,

00:07:10.850 --> 00:07:14.277
put them in a race of 50 or 100 miles
against anybody in the world,

00:07:14.301 --> 00:07:16.278
and it's a coin toss who's going to win.

00:07:16.302 --> 00:07:17.648
I'll give you an example.

00:07:17.672 --> 00:07:20.187
A couple years ago,
Emily Baer signed up for a race

00:07:20.211 --> 00:07:21.901
called the Hardrock 100,

00:07:21.925 --> 00:07:24.487
which tells you all you need
to know about the race.

00:07:24.511 --> 00:07:26.550
They give you 48 hours
to finish this race.

00:07:26.574 --> 00:07:28.479
Well, Emily Baer -- 500 runners --

00:07:28.503 --> 00:07:30.850
she finishes in eighth place,
in the top 10,

00:07:30.874 --> 00:07:33.128
even though she stopped
at all the aid stations

00:07:33.152 --> 00:07:35.047
to breastfeed her baby during the race.

00:07:35.071 --> 00:07:36.085
(Laughter)

00:07:36.109 --> 00:07:37.807
And yet, she beat 492 other people.

00:07:38.331 --> 00:07:39.488
The last mystery:

00:07:39.512 --> 00:07:42.296
Why is it that women get stronger
as distances get longer?

00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:43.656
The third mystery is this:

00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:47.148
At the University of Utah,
they started tracking finishing times

00:07:47.172 --> 00:07:48.832
for people running the marathon.

00:07:48.856 --> 00:07:52.663
What they found is that if you start
running the marathon at age 19,

00:07:52.687 --> 00:07:54.940
you'll get progressively
faster, year by year,

00:07:54.964 --> 00:07:56.941
until you reach your peak at age 27.

00:07:56.965 --> 00:08:00.941
And then after that,
you succumb to the rigors of time.

00:08:00.965 --> 00:08:02.557
And you'll get slower and slower,

00:08:02.581 --> 00:08:06.170
until eventually you're back to running
the same speed you were at age 19.

00:08:06.194 --> 00:08:08.435
So about seven, eight years
to reach your peak,

00:08:08.459 --> 00:08:10.535
and then gradually you fall off your peak,

00:08:10.559 --> 00:08:12.837
until you go back to the starting point.

00:08:12.861 --> 00:08:16.081
You'd think it might take eight years
to go back to the same speed,

00:08:16.105 --> 00:08:18.837
maybe 10 years -- no, it's 45 years.

00:08:18.861 --> 00:08:20.838
64-year-old men and women

00:08:20.862 --> 00:08:23.901
are running as fast
as they were at age 19.

00:08:23.925 --> 00:08:26.913
Now, I defy you to come
up with any other physical activity --

00:08:26.937 --> 00:08:29.899
and please don't say golf --
something that's actually hard --

00:08:29.923 --> 00:08:30.971
(Laughter)

00:08:30.995 --> 00:08:35.542
where geriatrics are performing
as well as they did as teenagers.

00:08:35.566 --> 00:08:37.366
So you have these three mysteries.

00:08:37.861 --> 00:08:41.837
Is there one piece in the puzzle
which might wrap all these things up?

00:08:42.140 --> 00:08:45.229
You've got to be careful anytime
someone looks back in prehistory

00:08:45.253 --> 00:08:47.559
and tries to give you
a global answer because,

00:08:47.583 --> 00:08:50.370
it being prehistory, you can say
whatever the hell you want

00:08:50.394 --> 00:08:51.553
and get away with it.

00:08:51.577 --> 00:08:52.943
But I'll submit this to you:

00:08:52.967 --> 00:08:55.668
If you put one piece in the middle
of this jigsaw puzzle,

00:08:55.692 --> 00:08:58.070
suddenly it all starts
to form a coherent picture.

00:08:58.094 --> 00:09:00.482
If you're wondering
why the Tarahumara don't fight

00:09:00.506 --> 00:09:02.030
and don't die of heart disease,

00:09:02.054 --> 00:09:04.814
why a poor Ethiopian
woman named Derartu Tulu

00:09:04.838 --> 00:09:07.667
can be the most compassionate
and yet the most competitive,

00:09:07.691 --> 00:09:11.514
and why we somehow were able
to find food without weapons,

00:09:11.538 --> 00:09:13.515
perhaps it's because humans,

00:09:13.539 --> 00:09:16.761
as much as we like to think of ourselves
as masters of the universe,

00:09:16.785 --> 00:09:20.203
actually evolved as nothing more
than a pack of hunting dogs.

00:09:20.608 --> 00:09:24.062
Maybe we evolved as a hunting pack animal.

00:09:24.433 --> 00:09:27.009
Because the one advantage
we have in the wilderness --

00:09:27.033 --> 00:09:29.489
again, it's not our fangs,
our claws or our speed --

00:09:29.513 --> 00:09:31.838
the only thing we do really well is sweat.

00:09:31.862 --> 00:09:34.640
We're really good
at being sweaty and smelly.

00:09:34.664 --> 00:09:37.902
Better than any other mammal
on Earth, we can sweat really well.

00:09:37.926 --> 00:09:41.790
But the advantage of that little bit
of social discomfort

00:09:41.814 --> 00:09:46.921
is the fact that, when it comes to running
under hot heat for long distances,

00:09:46.945 --> 00:09:49.189
we're superb -- the best on the planet.

00:09:49.213 --> 00:09:51.298
You take a horse on a hot day,

00:09:51.322 --> 00:09:54.210
and after about five or six miles,
that horse has a choice:

00:09:54.234 --> 00:09:56.887
it's either going to breathe
or it's going to cool off.

00:09:56.911 --> 00:09:58.489
But it ain't doing both. We can.

00:09:58.878 --> 00:10:01.855
So what if we evolved
as hunting pack animals?

00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.504
What if the only natural advantage
we had in the world

00:10:05.528 --> 00:10:07.925
was the fact that we could
get together as a group,

00:10:07.949 --> 00:10:10.937
go out there on that African savanna,
pick out an antelope,

00:10:10.961 --> 00:10:13.470
go out as a pack,
and run that thing to death?

00:10:14.216 --> 00:10:15.672
That's all we could do.

00:10:15.696 --> 00:10:17.673
We could run really far on a hot day.

00:10:17.697 --> 00:10:20.897
Well, if that's true, a couple
other things had to be true as well.

00:10:20.921 --> 00:10:23.750
The key to being part
of a hunting pack is the word "pack."

00:10:23.774 --> 00:10:26.382
If you go out by yourself
and try to chase an antelope,

00:10:26.406 --> 00:10:29.263
I guarantee there will be two cadavers
out in the savanna.

00:10:29.287 --> 00:10:30.930
You need a pack to pull together.

00:10:30.954 --> 00:10:33.182
You need to have
those 64- and 65-year-olds

00:10:33.206 --> 00:10:35.185
who have been doing this for a long time

00:10:35.209 --> 00:10:37.701
to understand which antelope
you're trying to catch.

00:10:37.725 --> 00:10:39.826
The herd explodes
and it gathers back again.

00:10:39.850 --> 00:10:42.218
Those expert trackers
have to be part of the pack.

00:10:42.242 --> 00:10:43.706
They can't be 10 miles behind.

00:10:43.730 --> 00:10:45.914
You need the women
and the adolescents there,

00:10:45.938 --> 00:10:49.330
because the two times in your life
you most benefit from animal protein

00:10:49.354 --> 00:10:52.225
is when you're a nursing mother
and a developing adolescent.

00:10:52.249 --> 00:10:54.899
It makes no sense to have
the antelope over there, dead,

00:10:54.923 --> 00:10:57.176
and the people who want
to eat it 50 miles away.

00:10:57.200 --> 00:10:58.783
They need to be part of the pack.

00:10:58.807 --> 00:11:01.644
You need those 27-year-old studs
at the peak of their powers

00:11:01.668 --> 00:11:02.824
ready to drop the kill,

00:11:02.848 --> 00:11:06.279
and you need those teenagers
who are learning the whole thing involved.

00:11:06.303 --> 00:11:07.459
The pack stays together.

00:11:07.483 --> 00:11:10.839
Another thing that has to be true:
this pack cannot be materialistic.

00:11:10.863 --> 00:11:14.292
You can't be hauling all your crap around,
trying to chase the antelope.

00:11:14.316 --> 00:11:15.802
You can't be a pissed-off pack.

00:11:15.826 --> 00:11:19.265
You can't be bearing grudges, like,
"I'm not chasing that guy's antelope.

00:11:19.289 --> 00:11:21.811
He pissed me off.
Let him go chase his own antelope."

00:11:21.835 --> 00:11:24.458
The pack has got to be able
to swallow its ego,

00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:26.378
be cooperative, and pull together.

00:11:27.119 --> 00:11:29.747
What you end up with, in other words,

00:11:29.771 --> 00:11:33.544
is a culture remarkably similar
to the Tarahumara,

00:11:33.568 --> 00:11:37.147
a tribe that has remained
unchanged since the Stone Age.

00:11:37.784 --> 00:11:39.411
It's a really compelling argument

00:11:39.435 --> 00:11:43.083
that maybe the Tarahumara are doing
exactly what all of us had done

00:11:43.107 --> 00:11:44.265
for two million years,

00:11:44.289 --> 00:11:47.333
that it's us in modern times
who have sort of gone off the path.

00:11:47.357 --> 00:11:50.638
You know, we look at running
as this kind of alien, foreign thing,

00:11:50.662 --> 00:11:54.131
this punishment you've got to do
because you ate pizza the night before.

00:11:54.155 --> 00:11:55.847
But maybe it's something different.

00:11:55.871 --> 00:11:58.968
Maybe we're the ones who have taken
this natural advantage we had

00:11:58.992 --> 00:12:00.320
and we spoiled it.

00:12:00.904 --> 00:12:03.448
How do we spoil it?
Well, how do we spoil anything?

00:12:03.472 --> 00:12:05.036
We try to cash in on it. Right?

00:12:05.060 --> 00:12:07.826
We try to can it and package it
and make it "better"

00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:09.239
and then sell it to people.

00:12:09.263 --> 00:12:11.757
And then what happened was,
we started creating

00:12:11.781 --> 00:12:15.215
these fancy cushioned things
which can make running "better,"

00:12:15.239 --> 00:12:16.655
called running shoes.

00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:19.611
The reason I get personally
pissed-off about running shoes

00:12:19.635 --> 00:12:22.612
is because I bought a million of them
and I kept getting hurt.

00:12:22.636 --> 00:12:24.613
And I think if anybody in here runs --

00:12:24.637 --> 00:12:26.417
I just had a conversation with Carol.

00:12:26.441 --> 00:12:30.072
We talked for two minutes backstage,
and she talked about plantar fasciitis.

00:12:30.096 --> 00:12:32.647
You talk to a runner,
I guarantee within 30 seconds,

00:12:32.671 --> 00:12:34.300
the conversation turns to injury.

00:12:34.324 --> 00:12:37.611
So if humans evolved as runners,
if that's our one natural advantage,

00:12:37.635 --> 00:12:39.108
then why are we so bad at it?

00:12:39.132 --> 00:12:40.743
Why do we keep getting hurt?

00:12:40.767 --> 00:12:43.139
A curious thing about running
and running injuries

00:12:43.163 --> 00:12:45.651
is that the running injury
is new to our time.

00:12:45.675 --> 00:12:47.499
If you read folklore and mythology,

00:12:47.523 --> 00:12:49.524
any kind of myths, any kind of tall tales,

00:12:49.548 --> 00:12:53.156
running is always associated
with freedom and vitality

00:12:53.180 --> 00:12:54.976
and youthfulness and eternal vigor.

00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.894
It's only in our lifetime
that running has become associated

00:12:57.918 --> 00:12:59.073
with fear and pain.

00:12:59.097 --> 00:13:03.208
Geronimo used to say, "My only friends
are my legs. I only trust my legs."

00:13:03.232 --> 00:13:06.851
That's because an Apache triathlon
used to be you'd run 50 miles

00:13:06.875 --> 00:13:08.026
across the desert,

00:13:08.050 --> 00:13:10.662
engage in hand-to-hand combat,
steal a bunch of horses,

00:13:10.686 --> 00:13:12.016
and slap leather for home.

00:13:12.040 --> 00:13:15.765
Geronimo was never saying, "You know
something, my Achilles -- I'm tapering.

00:13:15.789 --> 00:13:17.349
I've got to take this week off."

00:13:17.373 --> 00:13:20.390
Or, "I need to cross-train.
I didn't do yoga. I'm not ready."

00:13:20.414 --> 00:13:21.817
(Laughter)

00:13:21.841 --> 00:13:23.666
Humans ran and ran all the time.

00:13:23.690 --> 00:13:26.187
We are here today.
We have our digital technology.

00:13:26.211 --> 00:13:28.122
All of our science comes from the fact

00:13:28.146 --> 00:13:31.976
that our ancestors were able to do
something extraordinary every day,

00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:34.429
which was just rely
on their naked feet and legs

00:13:34.453 --> 00:13:35.899
to run long distances.

00:13:35.923 --> 00:13:37.722
So how do we get back to that again?

00:13:37.746 --> 00:13:39.958
Well, I would submit
to you the first thing is:

00:13:39.982 --> 00:13:42.807
get rid of all packaging,
all the sales, all the marketing.

00:13:42.831 --> 00:13:44.903
Get rid of all the stinking running shoes.

00:13:44.927 --> 00:13:46.880
Stop focusing on urban marathons,

00:13:46.904 --> 00:13:49.700
which, if you do four hours, you suck,

00:13:49.724 --> 00:13:51.677
and if you do 3:59:59, you're awesome,

00:13:51.701 --> 00:13:53.880
because you qualified for another race.

00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000
We need to get back to that sense
of playfulness and joyfulness

00:13:57.024 --> 00:13:59.894
and, I would say, nakedness,

00:13:59.918 --> 00:14:01.820
that has made the Tarahumara

00:14:01.844 --> 00:14:04.423
one of the healthiest and serene
cultures in our time.

00:14:05.224 --> 00:14:06.845
So what's the benefit? So what?

00:14:06.869 --> 00:14:09.738
So you burn off the Häagen-Dazs
from the night before.

00:14:09.762 --> 00:14:12.184
But maybe there's another
benefit there as well.

00:14:12.208 --> 00:14:15.341
Without getting too extreme about this,

00:14:15.365 --> 00:14:19.976
imagine a world where everybody
could go out the door

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.976
and engage in the kind of exercise

00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.976
that's going to make them
more relaxed, more serene,

00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:26.305
more healthy,

00:14:26.329 --> 00:14:27.641
burn off stress --

00:14:27.665 --> 00:14:30.854
where you don't come back into your office
a raging maniac anymore,

00:14:30.878 --> 00:14:33.362
or go home with a lot of stress
on top of you again.

00:14:33.386 --> 00:14:35.717
Maybe there's something
between what we are today

00:14:35.741 --> 00:14:38.249
and what the Tarahumara have always been.

00:14:38.273 --> 00:14:40.502
I don't say let's go back
to the Copper Canyons

00:14:40.526 --> 00:14:45.331
and live on corn and maize,
which is the Tarahumara's preferred diet,

00:14:45.635 --> 00:14:47.715
but maybe there's somewhere in between.

00:14:47.739 --> 00:14:49.406
And if we find that thing,

00:14:49.430 --> 00:14:52.010
maybe there is a big fat
Nobel Prize out there.

00:14:52.034 --> 00:14:56.921
Because if somebody could find a way
to restore that natural ability

00:14:56.945 --> 00:14:59.117
that we all enjoyed
for most of our existence

00:14:59.141 --> 00:15:00.712
up until the 1970s or so,

00:15:00.736 --> 00:15:06.127
the benefits -- social and physical
and political and mental --

00:15:06.151 --> 00:15:07.424
could be astounding.

00:15:07.448 --> 00:15:11.517
What I've been seeing today
is there is a growing subculture

00:15:11.541 --> 00:15:14.460
of barefoot runners,
people who've gotten rid of their shoes.

00:15:14.484 --> 00:15:16.370
And what they have found uniformly is,

00:15:16.394 --> 00:15:18.921
you get rid of the shoes,
you get rid of the stress,

00:15:18.945 --> 00:15:21.413
you get rid of the injuries
and the ailments.

00:15:21.437 --> 00:15:24.227
And what you find is something
the Tarahumara have known

00:15:24.251 --> 00:15:25.416
for a very long time:

00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.202
that this can be a whole lot of fun.

00:15:29.226 --> 00:15:31.053
I've experienced it personally myself.

00:15:31.077 --> 00:15:34.433
I was injured all my life; then
in my early 40s, I got rid of my shoes

00:15:34.457 --> 00:15:36.676
and my running ailments
have gone away, too.

00:15:36.700 --> 00:15:39.258
So hopefully it's something
we can all benefit from.

00:15:39.282 --> 00:15:41.324
I appreciate your listening to this story.

00:15:41.348 --> 00:15:42.499
Thanks very much.

00:15:42.523 --> 00:15:44.514
(Applause)