Tramps Like Us...

Baby We Were Born To Run

I've been a runner for most of my life, starting as a teenager trying to increase my fitness for basketball. I stopped for running for awhile in my adult years, as I got busy with kids and work, but picked it up again in my mid-30s. I started running again primarily to get back in shape.

While my reasons for running have always focused on physical fitness, I've always enjoyed running. I love the feeling of motion. When I miss a running day, I feel a sense of withdrawal. I get fidgety, as if my body knows I've been stationary too long. When stress is piling up, running gives me a release. The act of running feels as natural to me as breathing.

So, I was intrigued by Ingfei Che's article in Discover Magazine about a new idea on the origin of running and human biomechanics. Scientists have theorized that the descent of man from the trees to the Savanna, and all the evolutionary hooha that came with it - large brains, opposable thumbs, language - was all about walking.

Walking around the Savanna gave us access to resources we could exploit in ways that we could exploit resources in the trees. But the new thinking spotlights the role of our ability to run. Humans aren't terribly fast - when compared to 4-legged sprinters. But we're designed to run relatively fast over long distances, for long periods of time. This gave humans the ability to outlast faster species - basically, run them to ground - and to exploit the spoils of other predator's catches.

Chen's article goes into great detail about the unique biomechanics of humans, and how that translates into our special running abilities. It's fascinating reading.

And the article supports what I've always felt, that I was born to run.