The Tarahumara tribe is known for its incredible endurance and racing lifestyle. The members of this tribe are known as long-distance runners, who cover a distance of 600 kilometers in two days without any problems and everyone runs – from children to the elderly. Many documentaries and texts were written about them and their running strength and endurance, and running put this tribe on the global map.
The Tarahumara is a Native American tribe living in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Canyon in northwestern Mexico. Today, their tribe has about 40 thousand members and they are the only human community in the world whose history, culture, religion and rituals are based on running. They call themselves ‘Raramuri’, in translation – people who run; light-footed people.
The uniqueness of the Raramur as a “running people” lies in the fact that running is the cornerstone of their philosophy of life, their spirituality. Ritual races between villages (which usually cover up to 200 km of rocky paths) do not have a competitive basis but represent the embodiment of community, tribal unity. This is precisely why the attempts of various managers to make the Tarahumara into an invincible ultra power, like the Kenyan-Ethiopian one on the marathon tracks, mostly failed ingloriously.
The Tarahumarama concept of competition, fighting against other runners and even the concept of a prize (money, or bag of corn) as a motive for running from point A to point B is completely foreign.
The Tarahumara live divided into small villages separated from each other by several hours of running, scattered on the steep slopes of the canyon and at an altitude of 3,000 meters above sea level. Their most important social, competitive and ritual events are the rarajipari races, which are held several times a year and are linked to the changes of the seasons. They last for several days, have been taking place for centuries without the slightest change in rules and always between two neighboring villages.
Preparations for the race begin weeks before the start. The village elders choose the 10 best runners to represent the village, special potions are prepared which are believed to give special strength to the runners and spells are cast on the opponents. The race starts in the early evening in one of the villages and runs towards another village several hundred kilometers away. The teams run parallel to each other passing the wooden ball to each other. Both teams and the ball must enter the goal – losing the ball is the biggest shame. It’s amazing how kicking the ball doesn’t slow them down, and even more amazing is that they don’t look tired at all.
The first breakthrough of the Tarahumara Indians from their century-long isolation took place in 1992, when an unusual group of runners in sandals with the starting numbers on their national costumes started in Colorado for the Leadville Trail 100-mile race. Not fully understanding the goal of this kind of competition, the whole group gave up already at the 35th mile, but the next year the three returned to Colorado and won first, second and fifth place. It is surprising that the winner, Victoriano Churro, was then 55 years old, which, considering the average lifespan of the Tarahumara between 45 and 50 years, is a very old age. In 1994, the best runners in the tribe, now already aware of their power at the ultramarathon events of the Westerners, performed on the 65-kilometer long course of the Swiss Alpine Marathon in Davos. Starting, as unknown runners with no results from previous races, at the very back of the mass of 2,500 runners, they shocked the organizers by finishing the race among the top fifty.
World long-distance running experts still don’t quite understand what the secret of these supernaturally durable ultramarathoners is, and they surpass the abilities of runners trained according to top programs. Part of the answer probably lies in diet. Namely, the Tarahumara are forced to eat what can be grown on the harsh, steep slopes of the canyon. Thus, their diet is based on corn, beans, corn flour tortillas, fruits and vegetables (heavy carbohydrates!). They eat meat only on exceptional occasions, and their only source of dairy products is their goats. In their ultramarathon races, they eat only ground corn in water (something similar to grits). There are no sports drinks, gels and energy bars, or even water, due to the high level of pollution. Only liters of corn beer (a favorite local drink called tesguino), which they drink even during the race.
Part of the answer probably lies in the fact that they manage to run so many kilometers in shoes that are a little stiffer than flip-flops precisely because they are trained not to spare their feet.
Doctor Nikolas Romanov, a specialist in running techniques who has coached British Olympians, says: “Air cushioned shoes absorb the impact, instead of natural compression of the joints. Thus our legs become stiff and inelastic”.
Unfortunately, the destructive force of modern civilization is already seriously threatening the racing paradise of the Tarahumara. In the last fifty years, the increasingly intensive deforestation on the slopes of the Sierra Madre has led to erosion and thus destroyed the few agriculturally usable areas, putting the survival of this unique tribe in question. In recent times, the area has also become problematic due to drug trafficking. Namely, “civilized” man found a way to use the best ultramarathoners in the world as cheap labor. Therefore, if you type the term Tarahumara into an Internet search engine, you will most likely come across a number of pages that invite runners to help collect contributions and thus enable this unusual community to continue living its traditional – running lifestyle.
