When History Disrupts

Chris McDougall, author of NYT best seller “Born to Run”, kicked off a stellar day at TedxPennQuarter which took place at DCs famed Newseum. Chris’ message is that humans are made to run, evidenced by our existence for millions of years before the invention of weapons. We hunted by running our prey down. Literally. And the ‘we’ includes all of us; men women and children. The weakest and slowest in the jungle could run down any beast simply by outlasting it. We were all ultra marathoners before we figured out a way to get lazy by inventing weapons for hunting.

Running then became a sport and in the 1970′s a multi-billion industry was spawned making shoes marketed to make us faster and healthier. Big heels, padding and fancy colors abounded and at the same time, runners got slower and injuries compounded. Enter the Tarahumara. The Tarahumara are an indigenous people of northern Mexico, and renowned for their long-distance running ability. They live in the remote copper canyons and travel by foot, often running well over 100 miles on nothing more than a sandle. Their running style differs dramatically from the loping heel toe stride encouraged by a cushy running shoe. And injuries are almost non existent. The Tarahumara offer us a rare glimpse into the way we lived and ran long ago. By adopting their technique and running in a minimal shoe, or barefoot, we can run faster, farther and rid ourselves of the nagging injuries that plague 80% of all runners at any given time.

Disruptive innovations arise when mature markets get too complex, allowing new entrants to provide a simpler product. The multi-billion running shoe industry is currently getting disrupted by secrets locked in the copper canyons for thousands of years. This will be an interesting one to follow.

Healthy running probably isn’t the only secret the Tarahumara hold.

Tags: mcdougall, running

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