This is a fascinating article on the Anthropik Network describing how humans have forgotten how to walk. The author believes this stems from our use of shoes at a very young age etc. The author also describes the amazing feats of some of the amazing runners of the past like this:
Ernest Thompson Seton, who largely started the “Scouting” movement (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts), wrote: In 1882, at Fort Ellice, I saw a young Cree who, on foot, had just brought in despatches from Fort Qu’Appelle (125 miles away) in 25 hours. It created almost no comment. I heard little from the traders but cool remarks like, “a good boy”, “pretty good run”. It was obviously a very usual exploit, among Indians. The two Indian runners, Thomas Zafiro and Leonicio San Miguel, ran 62 1/2 miles, i.e. from Pachuca to Mexico City, in 9 hours, 37 minutes, November 8, 1926, according to the El Paso Times, February 14, 1932. This was 9 1/4 minutes to the mile.
Truely amazing this was done with no trail runners, no gels, no electrolyte replacement!
1 response so far ↓
1 hakado // Jul 4, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Fascinating story. I’m also starting to become a believer in the injustices that shoes and other modern gadgets have created on our anatomies.
Anyway…I don’t want to go off on a missive here about that. I’m looking forward to seeing more information on your site. My official trail running season is short (just the month of October) due to my other endurance racing commitments throughout the year, but it is one of my favorite activities.
hak