Our second reading for this morning comes from Paul’s first letter to his friend and younger colleague Timothy, in which Paul tells Timothy that he should urge the people in his care to “take hold of the life that really is life.” I have been mulling that phrase all week: what does Paul mean? What is that life? What does it look like? How does it feel?
Born to Run
A book I’m reading has helped me to a better understanding of that phrase. It’s the bestselling book called Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
It’s written by Christopher McDougall, for whom, as it does for many runners, running had become an injury plagued grind. He wanted to find a better way to run. And so, he traveled to the remote Copper Canyon of Mexico, home of the ancient and reclusive Tarahumara tribe, who are known to among the best long distance runners in the world, often racing 50-100 miles or more at a time. He wanted to see what set them apart, how they could run such distances with such great speed and endurance and not get hurt.
What the Tarahumara had were centuries of running in their genes, a particular style that allowed them to quickly cover uneven terrain, wearing only sandals and their distinctive native clothing. More than that, McDougall discovered, what they had was joy, love, and passion for running and life, something McDougall sees lacking in much of our American running.
In the book, McDougall traces the decline of American long distance running in the last few decades and asks, “So what happened?” He writes, “It’s hard to determine a single cause for any event in this complex world, of course, but forced to choose, the answer is best summed up as follows: $.” “And the fact is, American distance running went into a death spiral precisely when cash entered the equation.”
Today, if you want to be a runner, we’re told that we have to have the high-tech running shoes, synthetic fabric that wicks moisture away from your body, sunglasses so you don’t have to squint and your face muscles can relax so that all that energy can go to your legs, an iPod to motivate, a GPS and heart rate monitor to track your time, pace, distance, heart rate and calories burned. For all of this, Injury rates are higher than before, while the verve and joy of running are lower.
And I should know. I have all these things. When I’m fully geared up I look like a cyborg – half man, half machine, with wires, buttons and reflective gear all over. But it doesn’t make me a better runner. It doesn’t make me a happier runner. In fact, even though I’m surrounded by nature, people, all kinds of activity, when I’m geared up, I’m isolated, disconnected, in my own bubble.
McDougall argues that we need to strip some of those layers away. He says that all this stuff is someone else’s idea of what running is all about, someone else’s image of success. One of the reasons his book is so popular is because of its call to get back to the simplicity, the enjoyment of the running, of the movement, and our surroundings. Back to the heart. For, he concludes, what makes a great runner is not all this stuff, but love. Love makes a great runner, and what makes running great. Continue reading
