Tarahumara Indians

The Running People Rex Pace, an ultrarunner, once said, "Pushing your body past what you thought it was capable of is easy; the hard part is pushing yourself even further ... past what your mind wants to let you. That’s what ultrarunning is all about; introducing you to a self you’ve never known.” The human body can do amazing things, especially when it comes to running. Although most people think of running as a pain in the behind, a small minority are crazy about it. These people live and breathe running. People like a Scott Jurek, or Ann Trason, well known endurance runners, can clock in more than 150 miles a week because to them, running is not just a sport, but a lifestyle. Because of these people, ultrarunning was born and has taken its hold. All over the country, races anywhere from 50 to 300 miles long are taking place, and only the best runners complete them. That is, the runners who want to be known. However, there is a group of people who have been called “the finest natural distance runners in the world”, yet barely anyone has heard of them. These very shy and isolated people are known as the Tarahumara Indians, and they are incredible endurance runners. This is evident in the way they live and how they incorporate running as a part of their lifestyle. The Tarahumara Indians also call themselves the Raramuri, which translates to mean foot runner. These Indians live in the Sierra Madre of Mexico, in “small isolated clusters with most of the population concentrated in the…Copper Canyons” (Beauregard). The Copper Canyons consists of five canyons, three of which are deeper than the Grand Canyon. The terrain is very rugged, nearly impassable to outsiders, and there is a lot of vegetation. Due to cold temperatures, the soil is bad for growing crops, and so the “Tarahumara are semi-nomadic and cave dwellers for part of the year” (Beauregard). They also live under cliffs or in small cabins. Because they live so deep within the Copper Canyons, they do not