The Olympics are over. But the Games aren’t the only place that people perform impressive physical feats. In Northern Mexico, the Tarahumara (tar-uh-oo-MAR-uh) people became accustomed to running to cope with scarcity and isolation. Some can run for five, 10, or 20 hours non-stop with no special equipment or coaches.
The community of 56,000 Indigenous people is located deep in a mountain range, along the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Sonora. The people are known as Tarahumaras, but they call themselves Rarámuris.
Without vehicles, paved roads, and services such as clinics and telephone lines, the Tarahumaras run to get places faster. But running’s not just about travel. Local communities also organize competitions as part of religious celebrations or ceremonies.
“We run because we love to,” says runner Miguel Lara. “When I was a kid, I watched the elders running for hours, and I wondered: How can they endure for so many kilometers? Couldn’t I do the same?”
With no vehicle, Maribel Estrada, Lara’s wife, runs to church and to meet her children after school. She runs to visit her mother, who lives 160 miles from the family’s home in Porochi, Mexico. And she covers all those miles in rubber sandals with leather laces.
Injuries are common among long-distance runners. Running injuries are even more of a concern for growing children, whose growth plates in joints haven’t fully formed. So Lara asks his kids, ages three and 11, to wait. He wants them to grow a bit more before becoming long-distance runners like their ancestors. They watch near the finish line at the local races he usually wins. They run the last few miles together.
“Maybe one day, if they like to run, they will be champions too,” says Lara.
In the town of Cuiteco, 13-year-old Evelyn Rascón runs in sneakers and a bright violet skirt. Other women run alongside her. Many wear traditional rubber sandals.
Evelyn says she started running when she was six years old. She has completed half marathons—13.1 miles—in about an hour and a half. Average runners rarely travel that distance in less than two hours. But Evelyn wants to break her own record. She works hard for her dream.
“When they send me out to pick up something, I run,” Evelyn says. “And when I head back home from school, I also run through the slopes.”
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. — Hebrews 12:1-2
Why? A geographic place can influence the culture of the people who live there. The Tarahumaras got used to running out of necessity, but it’s a beloved part of their culture.
