Are we born to run? | Christopher McDougall

翻译人员: Felix Chen 校对人员: Angelia King

Running: it's basically just right, left, right, left, yeah?

奔跑：仅仅就是左、右、左、右、-- 是么？

I mean, we've been doing it for two million years,

我的意思是，我们已经奔跑了两百万年了，

由我来说一些从未谈及的和

so it's kind of arrogant to assume that I've got something to say

对很久之前我们就擅长的奔跑而言

that hasn't been said and performed better a long time ago.

说三道四似乎有点自大。

But the cool thing about running, as I've discovered,

但如我所发现的，关于奔跑最酷的事

是在奔跑过程中时刻发生

is that something bizarre happens in this activity all the time.

奇异变化的一些事。

Case in point: A couple months ago, if you saw the New York City Marathon,

例证：几个月前，如果你看了纽约市马拉松赛，

我保证你会看到一些

I guarantee you, you saw something that no one has ever seen before.

之前从没人见过的事。

An Ethiopian woman named Derartu Tulu turns up at the starting line.

一名名为德拉图·图鲁的埃塞俄比亚妇女

出现在起点。

她37岁了，

She's 37 years old.

She hasn't won a marathon of any kind in eight years,

她在八年内还没有赢得过任何形式的马拉松比赛，

几个月之前

and a few months previously,

she had almost died in childbirth.

她几乎在分娩中死去。

Derartu Tulu was ready to hang it up and retire from the sport,

德拉图·图鲁已经准备挂靴，从此退出这项运动，

但她决定破釜沉舟

but she decided she'd go for broke

and try for one last big payday in the marquee event,

最后

在马拉松重头戏

the New York City Marathon.

纽约市马拉松赛上再做一次大的尝试。

Except -- bad news for Derartu Tulu -- some other people had the same idea,

除了 -- 对德拉图·图鲁来说是坏消息 -- 其他一些人也有同样的想法，

包括奥林匹克金牌得主

including the Olympic gold medalist,

葆拉·拉德克利夫，她是个奔跑狂人，

and Paula Radcliffe, who is a monster,

她是史上迄今最快的女子马拉松选手。

the fastest woman marathoner in history by far.

Only 10 minutes off the men's world record,

仅仅比男子世界纪录慢10分钟，

葆拉·拉德克利夫本来是不可战胜的。

Paula Radcliffe is essentially unbeatable.

这是她的比赛。

That's her competition.

发令枪响后，她不仅是落后；

The gun goes off, and -- I mean, she's not even an underdog;

她非常落后。

she's, like, under the underdogs.

But the under-underdog hangs tough,

但她顽强不屈。

在22英里到26英里的路程上，

and 22 miles into a 26-mile race,

there is Derartu Tulu, up there with the lead pack.

德拉图·图鲁在

领跑集团之中。

Now, this is when something really bizarre happens.

这时非常奇异的事情发生了。

Paula Radcliffe, the one person who is sure to snatch the big paycheck

葆拉·拉德克利夫，这个必定要夺冠的人把巨额奖金

交到了德拉图·图鲁这个落后者的手中，

from Derartu Tulu's under-underdog hands,

突然拖着她的腿并开始落后。

suddenly grabs her leg and starts to fall back.

So we all know what to do in this situation, right?

我们都知道这种情形下要怎么做，对么？

你会用肘在她嘴上来一击

You give her a quick crack in the teeth with your elbow

然后奋力冲向终点。

and blaze for the finish line.

Derartu Tulu ruins the script.

德拉图·图鲁没有这么做。

Instead of taking off,

不是匆匆离开，

she falls back and she grabs Paula Radcliffe,

她后退并抓住葆拉·拉德克利夫，

and says, "Come on. Come with us. You can do it."

说道，“加油，跟上我们。你能做到的。”

So Paula Radcliffe, unfortunately, does it.

因此葆拉·拉德克利夫，不幸地，这么做了。

她跟上了领先集团

She catches up with the lead pack

and is pushing toward the finish line.

并冲向终点。

But then she falls back again.

但是接下来她又一次落后了。

The second time, Derartu Tulu grabs her and tries to pull her.

德拉图·图鲁第二次抓着她，试着拉着她跑。

这时葆拉·拉德克利夫说道

And Paula Radcliffe, at that point, says, "I'm done. Go."

“我不行了。你跑吧。”

So that's a fantastic story, and we all know how it ends.

这是个难以置信的故事，我们都知道最终结局如何。

She loses the check,

她错失了奖金，

but she goes home with something bigger and more important.

但是她带回家的是些更有意义更重要的东西。

Except Derartu Tulu ruins the script again.

除了德拉图·图鲁再次做了同样的事以外。

Instead of losing, she blazes past the lead pack and wins.

她没有输，她超过了领先集团并赢得了比赛，

Wins the New York City Marathon,

赢了纽约市马拉松赛，

goes home with a big fat check.

带着大笔奖金回家。

It's a heartwarming story,

这是个暖人心房的故事，

but if you drill a little bit deeper,

但如果你再深入的思考一下，

you've got to sort of wonder about what exactly was going on there.

大家可能很想知道当时到底发生了什么。

When you have two outliers in one organism,

当同一组织内出现两次局外人时，

这不是巧合。

it's not a coincidence.

When you have someone who is more competitive and more compassionate

当你知道有人比比赛中任何其他人

都更有竞争力更有同情心时，再一次，这不是巧合。

than anybody else in the race, again, it's not a coincidence.

你向我展示一只有着蹼足和鳃的生物，

You show me a creature with webbed feet and gills;

somehow water's involved.

那它或许与水相关。

Someone with that kind of heart, there's some kind of connection there.

有这样一颗心的人们之间有着某种连接。

And the answer to it, I think, can be found

我想，答案能

在墨西哥铜谷中找到，

down in the Copper Canyons of Mexico,

where there's a reclusive tribe, called the Tarahumara Indians.

那儿有一个部落，一个隐居的部落，

这个部落被称为塔拉乌马拉印第安人。

Now, the Tarahumara are remarkable for three things.

现在塔拉乌马拉人在三件事上非常出色。

第一件事是，

Number one is:

they have been living essentially unchanged for the past 400 years.

他们已经基本保持不变的

在那儿生活了四百年。

When the conquistadors arrived in North America you had two choices:

当西班牙征服者到达北美洲时，当地人只有两个选择：

要么进行反击与之交战，要么就离开。

you either fight back and engage or you could take off.

玛雅人和阿兹特克人选择了交战，

The Mayans and Aztecs engaged,

这就是为什么现在玛雅人和阿兹特克人非常少的原因。

which is why there are very few Mayans and Aztecs.

The Tarahumara had a different strategy.

塔拉乌马拉人有个不同的策略。

They took off and hid

他们离开了，隐藏在

in this labyrinthine, networking, spider-webbing system of canyons

这个被称为铜谷的

错综复杂的

迷宫般的峡谷中，

called the Copper Canyons.

And there they've remained since the 1600s,

他们从1600年起就呆在这儿 --

基本上以同样的方式在此生活。

essentially the same way they've always been.

The second thing remarkable about the Tarahumara is:

第二件关于塔拉乌马拉人的非常出色的事

deep into old age -- 70 to 80 years old --

是，年纪大了以后 -- 70岁到80岁 --

these guys aren't running marathons;

这些人不跑马拉松，

they're running mega-marathons.

他们跑超级马拉松。

They're not doing 26 miles,

他们跑的不是26英里，

they're doing 100, 150 miles at a time,

他们每次跑100英里，150英里，

and apparently without injury, without problems.

而且显然没有受伤，没有出现问题。

The last thing that's remarkable about the Tarahumara is:

塔拉乌马拉人最后一件出色的事情是

all the things we're going to be talking about today,

所有我们今天要讨论的事，

所有我们正试图用我们

all the things we're trying to use all of our technology

全部的科技和脑力解决的事 --

and brain power to solve --

things like heart disease and cholesterol and cancer;

比如像心脏病、高胆固醇和癌症

以及犯罪、战争、暴力和临床忧郁症 --

crime, warfare and violence; clinical depression -- all this stuff --

所有这些，塔拉乌马拉人都不知道。

the Tarahumara don't know what you're talking about.

他们完全

They are free from all of these modern ailments.

没有这些现代疾病。

那么，这联系是什么呢？

So what's the connection?

再次，我们探讨一下局外人。

Again, we're talking about outliers;

这儿有某种程度的因果关系。

there's got to be some kind of cause and effect.

有些哈佛大学和犹他大学的

Well, there are teams of scientists at Harvard and the University of Utah

科学团队

正费劲脑筋试图理解

that are bending their brains and trying to figure out

塔拉乌马拉人一直所了解的。

what the Tarahumara have known forever.

They're trying to solve those same kinds of mysteries.

他们正试图解决这些同一类型的谜团。

And once again, a mystery wrapped inside of a mystery --

再一次的，一个谜团包含在另一个谜团之中 --

perhaps the key to Derartu Tulu and the Tarahumara

也许关于德拉图·图鲁和塔拉乌马拉人的答案

就包含在另外三个谜团之中，像这样的事物：

is wrapped in three other mysteries, which go like this:

Three things -- if you have the answer, come up and take the microphone,

三个事物 -- 如果有人知道答案，请站起来拿起麦克风，

因为没有其他人知道这个答案。

because nobody else knows the answer.

但如果你知道这个答案，那你就比这个星球上的任何一个人都要聪明。

If you know it, you're smarter than anybody on planet Earth.

第一个谜团是：

Mystery number one is this:

两百万年前人类的脑容量暴增。

Two million years ago, the human brain exploded in size.

南方古猿人只有一个小豌豆那么大的大脑。

Australopithecus had a tiny little pea brain.

突然人类出现了 -- 直立人 --

Suddenly humans show up, Homo erectus, big old melon head.

有着成熟的瓜那么大的头部。

To have a brain of that size,

为了保持这么大体积的大脑，

you need to have a source of condensed caloric energy.

就需要有浓缩的卡路里能量的来源。

In other words, early humans are eating dead animals --

换句话说，早期人类吃死亡的动物 --

毫无疑问，这是事实。

no argument, that's a fact.

唯一的问题是，

The only problem is,

the first edged weapons only appeared about 200,000 years ago.

最初的带刃武器仅出现在大约20万年前。

因此不知为何在两百万年间，

So somehow, for nearly two million years,

we are killing animals without any weapons.

我们不用任何武器来杀死动物。

Now, we're not using our strength,

现在我们没有使用自己的力气

because we are the biggest sissies in the jungle.

因为我们在丛林中是最弱的。

Every other animal is stronger than we are,

任何其他动物都要比我们强大。

they have fangs, they have claws, they have nimbleness, they have speed.

它们有着尖牙，它们有利爪，它们灵活，它们敏捷。

我们觉得乌塞恩·博尔特跑得快。乌塞恩·博尔特却跑不过一只松鼠。

We think Usain Bolt is fast.

Usain Bolt can get his ass kicked by a squirrel.

我们并不快。

We're not fast.

That would be an Olympic event:

这可以作为一项奥林匹克比赛：放开一只松鼠。

turn a squirrel loose, whoever catches it gets a gold medal.

谁抓到这只松鼠，谁就是金牌获得者。

(Laughter)

因此，没有武器，没有速度，没有力量，没有尖牙，没有利爪。

So no weapons, no speed, no strength, no fangs, no claws.

我们是如何杀死这些动物的呢？第一个谜团。

How were we killing these animals? Mystery number one.

Mystery number two:

第二个谜团：

Women have been in the Olympics for quite some time now,

目前女性已经参加奥林匹克运动会有相当一段时间了，

but one thing that's remarkable about all women sprinters:

但关于所有女子短跑选手的一件值得注意的事是 --

她们不行，她们很差。

they all suck; they're terrible.

There's not a fast woman on the planet and there never has been.

这个星球上没有跑得快的女性

从来没有过。

The fastest woman to ever run a mile did it in 4:15.

最快的女性曾在4分15秒内跑完一英里。

I could throw a rock and hit a high-school boy

我扔块石头就能打中一个跑的

who can run faster than 4:15.

比4分15秒更快的高中男生。

For some reason, you guys are just really slow.

由于某些原因，你们实在是跑得慢。

But --

（笑声）

(Laughter)

But, you get to the marathon we were just talking about --

但我们回到我们刚刚谈论过的马拉松上 --

you've only been allowed to run the marathon for 20 years,

你们仅仅适合跑马拉松也就20年。

因为，在二十世纪八十年代之前，

because prior to the 1980s, medical science said

医学表明如果一名女性尝试跑26英里 --

if a woman tried to run 26 miles -- does anyone know what would happen

有人知道如果你尝试跑26英里会发生什么吗，

if you tried to run 26 miles?

为什么你在八十年代之前被禁止参加马拉松呢？

Why you were banned from the marathon before the 1980s?

Audience Member: Her uterus would be torn.

（观众：她的子宫将被扯裂。）她的子宫将被扯裂。

Christopher McDougall: Her uterus would be torn, yes.

是的。女性生殖器官会被扯裂。

Torn reproductive organs.

子宫会脱落，毫不夸张，脱落出体外。

The uterus would literally fall out of the body.

(Laughter)

到目前我参加过许多马拉松赛，

Now, I've been to a lot of marathons,

而我还从未见过一次这样的事情发生。

and I've yet to see any ...

（笑声）

(Laughter)

那么，仅仅过了20年，女性就被允许参加马拉松赛跑了。

So it's only been 20 years

that women have been allowed to run the marathon.

在这个非常短的学习曲线中，

In that very short learning curve, you've gone from broken organs

女性从马拉松会损害器官

up to the fact that you're only 10 minutes off the male world record.

改变到这样一个事实，女子世界纪录仅比

男子的慢10分钟。

Then you go beyond 26 miles, into the distance

接着女性开始超越26英里，

直到医学所告诉我们的会致命的距离 --

that medical science also told us would be fatal to humans --

remember Pheidippides died when he ran 26 miles --

回忆一下费迪皮迪兹在跑完26英里后死去 --

你们女性现在到达了50和100英里，

you get to 50 and 100 miles, and suddenly, it's a different game.

这突然成了一个不同的游戏。

You take a runner like Ann Trason or Nikki Kimball or Jenn Shelton,

可以让安·崔森、妮基·金博尔或杰娜·谢尔顿

put them in a race of 50 or 100 miles against anybody in the world,

参加50或100英里的比赛，与世界上的任何人对抗

谁胜谁负还在五五之数。

and it's a coin toss who's going to win.

我来举个例子。

I'll give you an example.

A couple years ago, Emily Baer signed up for a race

在几年前，埃米莉·贝尔报名参加了一个

名为硬石100的比赛，

called the Hardrock 100,

which tells you all you need to know about the race.

这就是关于这个比赛你们所需知道的一切了。

They give you 48 hours to finish this race.

参赛者有48小时来完成比赛。

Well, Emily Baer -- 500 runners --

而埃米莉·贝尔 -- 在500名参赛者中 --

she finishes in eighth place, in the top 10,

她第八个完成比赛，名列前十，

even though she stopped at all the aid stations

即使在比赛中她在每个急救点都会停下来

为她的宝宝哺乳 --

to breastfeed her baby during the race.

(Laughter)

即便如此，她仍击败了其他492名参赛者。

And yet, she beat 492 other people.

最后一个谜团：那么为什么女性在距离变长时

The last mystery:

Why is it that women get stronger as distances get longer?

变得更强了？

第三个谜团是这样：

The third mystery is this:

At the University of Utah, they started tracking finishing times

在犹他大学，他们追踪人们

完成马拉松的时间。

for people running the marathon.

What they found is that if you start running the marathon at age 19,

他们的发现

是，如果在19岁开始跑马拉松，

you'll get progressively faster, year by year,

你将逐渐跑得越来越快，逐年增加，

直到在27岁时到达顶峰。

until you reach your peak at age 27.

而在此之后，你会经受不住

And then after that, you succumb to the rigors of time.

时间的严峻考验。

然后你会跑得越来越慢，

And you'll get slower and slower,

until eventually you're back to running the same speed you were at age 19.

知道最终你的速度会回落到19岁时的速度。

因此大约有七八年的时间来到达你的顶峰，

So about seven, eight years to reach your peak,

然后逐渐从顶峰回落下来，

and then gradually you fall off your peak,

一直回到起点。

until you go back to the starting point.

You'd think it might take eight years to go back to the same speed,

你也许认为会花上八年时间才会回落至原来的速度，

也许是10年 -- 不，是45年。

maybe 10 years -- no, it's 45 years.

64-year-old men and women

60岁的男性和女性

are running as fast as they were at age 19.

与他们在19岁时跑的一样快。

Now, I defy you to come up with any other physical activity --

现在我看大家能不能想出任何其他的体育运动 --

and please don't say golf -- something that's actually hard --

请不要说高尔夫 -- 一些确实非常困难的运动 --

(Laughter)

在什么运动中老人与

where geriatrics are performing as well as they did as teenagers.

他们年轻时表现的一样好。

So you have these three mysteries.

那么大家知道了这三个谜团。

Is there one piece in the puzzle which might wrap all these things up?

这谜团中是否有一项

能对所有这些事情进行总结？

任何时候有人回顾史前并试图给出一些

You've got to be careful anytime someone looks back in prehistory

全球性的答案时，你都应该十分小心，

and tries to give you a global answer because,

因为，这是史前，

it being prehistory, you can say whatever the hell you want

你说什么都行，然后就把说过的抛在一边。

and get away with it.

但我将告诉你们这个：

But I'll submit this to you:

如果你放入这个拼图游戏中间的一块，

If you put one piece in the middle of this jigsaw puzzle,

突然间这一切就从一幅连贯的画开始了。

suddenly it all starts to form a coherent picture.

如果你想知道为什么塔拉乌马拉人没有战斗

If you're wondering why the Tarahumara don't fight

不会死于心脏病，

and don't die of heart disease,

为什么可怜的埃塞俄比亚女子德拉图·图鲁

why a poor Ethiopian woman named Derartu Tulu

can be the most compassionate and yet the most competitive,

会是最有同情心，同时又最具有竞争力，

and why we somehow were able to find food without weapons,

为什么我们反而能够

不用武器也能觅食，

perhaps it's because humans,

也许仅仅是因为人类，

as much as we like to think of ourselves as masters of the universe,

和我们乐于认为我们自己是宇宙的主人一样，

actually evolved as nothing more than a pack of hunting dogs.

实际上人类进化的更像是一群猎犬，

而不是像其他的什么。

Maybe we evolved as a hunting pack animal.

也许我们进化

成了一群狩猎动物。

Because the one advantage we have in the wilderness --

因为我们在荒野中的一个优点是 --

再次强调，不是我们的尖牙、利爪和速度 --

again, it's not our fangs, our claws or our speed --

我们真真正正拥有的唯一的优点就是汗水。

the only thing we do really well is sweat.

We're really good at being sweaty and smelly.

我们确实擅长于出汗和变臭。

Better than any other mammal on Earth, we can sweat really well.

比地球上任何其他哺乳动物都要强，我们能非常好的出汗。

But the advantage of that little bit of social discomfort

但这个会带来点

社交不适的优势

is the fact that, when it comes to running under hot heat for long distances,

实际上是，当说到要在高温下

跑上很长的距离时，

我们是一流的，我们是星球上最棒的。

we're superb -- the best on the planet.

You take a horse on a hot day,

在热天里骑一匹马，

and after about five or six miles, that horse has a choice:

在走了五或六英里后，马会当即做选择。

要么停下喘口气，要么让自己凉快下来，

it's either going to breathe or it's going to cool off.

But it ain't doing both. We can.

但它没法同时做到这两项 -- 我们能。

So what if we evolved as hunting pack animals?

那么如果我们进化成狩猎群居动物会怎么样？

What if the only natural advantage we had in the world

如果我们在世界上拥有的唯一的自然优势

was the fact that we could get together as a group,

是我们能作为一个团体聚在一起，

走向非洲大草原，找到一头羚羊

go out there on that African savanna, pick out an antelope,

并成群结队的出去，追逐这只羚羊，直到它死去？

go out as a pack, and run that thing to death?

这就是我们可能会做的一切；

That's all we could do.

We could run really far on a hot day.

我们能在热天里跑非常长的距离。

Well, if that's true, a couple other things had to be true as well.

如果这是真的，其他的一些事也会是真的。

The key to being part of a hunting pack is the word "pack."

狩猎团体的关键是“团体”这个词。

If you go out by yourself and try to chase an antelope,

如果你自己出去，并试着追赶一只羚羊，

我保证你和羚羊将会成为大草原上的两具尸体。

I guarantee there will be two cadavers out in the savanna.

你需要一个团体齐心协力。

You need a pack to pull together.

你需要那些曾这么做过

You need to have those 64- and 65-year-olds

多年的六十四，五岁的人，

who have been doing this for a long time

让他们来帮你了解哪只羚羊才是应该去捕捉的。

to understand which antelope you're trying to catch.

羚羊群散开，并重新汇聚它们。

The herd explodes and it gathers back again.

Those expert trackers have to be part of the pack.

团体应该有些专业的追踪者。

他们不能落后10英里以上。

They can't be 10 miles behind.

You need the women and the adolescents there,

团体中需要有妇女和青少年，

because the two times in your life you most benefit from animal protein

因为生命中有两个时期最能从动物性蛋白质中获益

一个是哺乳期的母亲和发育中的青少年。

is when you're a nursing mother and a developing adolescent.

让羚羊死在那儿而想吃掉它的人却

It makes no sense to have the antelope over there, dead,

在50英里之外，这样毫无意义。

and the people who want to eat it 50 miles away.

他们都需要成为团体的一部分。

They need to be part of the pack.

需要那些27岁处于力量巅峰的壮年

You need those 27-year-old studs at the peak of their powers

来围捕猎物，

ready to drop the kill,

需要有些少年

and you need those teenagers who are learning the whole thing involved.

来学习这所有的一切。

团体聚在一起。

The pack stays together.

Another thing that has to be true: this pack cannot be materialistic.

关于这个团体的另一个事实是：这一团体不能是利己的。

You can't be hauling all your crap around, trying to chase the antelope.

不能靠夸夸其谈来捕捉羚羊。

不能是个生气包。不能有积怨。

You can't be a pissed-off pack.

You can't be bearing grudges, like, "I'm not chasing that guy's antelope.

比如，“我才不会去追那家伙的羚羊呢。

他惹毛我了。让他自己去追那羚羊吧。”

He pissed me off. Let him go chase his own antelope."

团队必须能忍气吞声，

The pack has got to be able to swallow its ego,

能协作并齐心协力。

be cooperative, and pull together.

这样最终得到的，换句话说，

What you end up with, in other words,

is a culture remarkably similar to the Tarahumara,

就是与塔拉乌马拉人

非常相似的一种文化 --

a tribe that has remained unchanged since the Stone Age.

一个自石器时代以来

就从未改变过的部落。

It's a really compelling argument

这是个确实能令人信服的理由

that maybe the Tarahumara are doing exactly what all of us had done

也许塔拉乌马拉人现在做的跑步

正是我们已经做了两百万年的事。

for two million years,

that it's us in modern times who have sort of gone off the path.

正是我们在现代偏离了道路。

You know, we look at running as this kind of alien, foreign thing,

你知道，我们把跑步看成是某种外星的、异域的事物，

this punishment you've got to do because you ate pizza the night before.

这好比是对吃了前一天晚上的比萨的惩罚。

但也许这是件不同的事。

But maybe it's something different.

也许我们拥有了这一自然天赋

Maybe we're the ones who have taken this natural advantage we had

但我们却荒废了它。

and we spoiled it.

我们是如何荒废它的呢？我们是如何荒废了这一切呢？

How do we spoil it? Well, how do we spoil anything?

We try to cash in on it. Right?

我们尝试着把它变现。

We try to can it and package it and make it "better"

我们试图把它装入罐中，打包起来，让它看起来更好

接着把它出售。

and then sell it to people.

And then what happened was, we started creating

我们开始创造这些

these fancy cushioned things which can make running "better,"

精美的垫状物品，

它让跑步变得更好，它被称为跑步鞋。

called running shoes.

The reason I get personally pissed-off about running shoes

我个人对跑步鞋感到不爽的原因是

is because I bought a million of them and I kept getting hurt.

因为我买了无数的跑步鞋，但还是不断受伤。

And I think if anybody in here runs --

我想，如果这儿有人跑步的话 --

I just had a conversation with Carol.

我刚与卡罗尔交谈过；

We talked for two minutes backstage, and she talked about plantar fasciitis.

我们在后台谈了两分钟，她谈了谈足底筋膜炎。

你与一名跑步者谈话，我保证，在三十秒内

You talk to a runner, I guarantee within 30 seconds,

the conversation turns to injury.

话题就会转到受伤上。

So if humans evolved as runners, if that's our one natural advantage,

因此，如果人类进化为跑步者，如果这是我们的自然天赋之一，

then why are we so bad at it?

那么为什么我们如此不擅长它呢？为什么我们不断的受伤呢？

Why do we keep getting hurt?

A curious thing about running and running injuries

关于跑步和跑步受伤的奇怪事

是在我们的时代才出现了跑步受伤。

is that the running injury is new to our time.

If you read folklore and mythology,

如果你看看民间传说和神话故事，

any kind of myths, any kind of tall tales,

任何类型的神话，任何类型的故事中，

running is always associated with freedom and vitality

跑步总是与

自由、活力、年轻和永恒的力量相关联。

and youthfulness and eternal vigor.

只是在我们的一生中

It's only in our lifetime that running has become associated

跑步才变得与恐惧和疼痛相关。

with fear and pain.

杰罗尼莫曾说过

Geronimo used to say, "My only friends are my legs. I only trust my legs."

“我的双腿是我唯一的朋友。我只信任我的双腿。”

That's because an Apache triathlon used to be you'd run 50 miles

这是因为阿帕契铁人三项

过去需要跑50英里得穿越沙漠，

across the desert,

加入一场肉搏战，偷一群马

engage in hand-to-hand combat, steal a bunch of horses,

并为了回家得比拼拔枪。

and slap leather for home.

杰罗尼莫从未说过，“啊哈，你知道吗，

Geronimo was never saying, "You know something, my Achilles -- I'm tapering.

我的弱点 -- 我正在变弱。我需要休息一周，”

I've got to take this week off."

或是“我需要进行多项训练。

Or, "I need to cross-train. I didn't do yoga. I'm not ready."

我不做瑜伽。我还没准备好。”

(Laughter)

人类时刻在奔跑。

Humans ran and ran all the time.

We are here today. We have our digital technology.

今天我们所处时代。我们有数字技术。

我们所有的科学都来自这样一个事实

All of our science comes from the fact

我们的祖先能

that our ancestors were able to do something extraordinary every day,

每天做些非同凡响的事，

仅仅靠他们的赤脚和双腿

which was just rely on their naked feet and legs

就能跑很长的距离。

to run long distances.

那么要多久我们才能再次拥有这样的能力？

So how do we get back to that again?

Well, I would submit to you the first thing is:

好了，我会建议各位首先

把所有的包装、所有的销售、所有的买卖放到一边。

get rid of all packaging, all the sales, all the marketing.

Get rid of all the stinking running shoes.

摆脱所有那些讨厌的跑步鞋。

停止关注城市马拉松，

Stop focusing on urban marathons,

如果你花了四个小时完成这类比赛，你糟透了。

which, if you do four hours, you suck,

and if you do 3:59:59, you're awesome,

如果你3小时59分59秒完成，你就是了不起的

because you qualified for another race.

因为你有资格参加另一场比赛。

我们需要找回那种嬉戏和玩乐的感觉，

We need to get back to that sense of playfulness and joyfulness

我想说

and, I would say, nakedness,

赤脚奔跑让塔拉乌马拉人的文化

that has made the Tarahumara

成为我们时代中最健康和宁静的文化之一。

one of the healthiest and serene cultures in our time.

那么能得到什么好处？那又怎么样？

So what's the benefit? So what?

因此你从前天晚上起扔掉哈根达斯？

So you burn off the Häagen-Dazs from the night before.

But maybe there's another benefit there as well.

但也许还有另一个好处。

Without getting too extreme about this,

关于这个好处，不要变得有点过于极端，

imagine a world where everybody could go out the door

想象一个世界

其中每个人都能走出门外

并参与某种运动

and engage in the kind of exercise

某种能让人们更放松、更宁静、更健康

that's going to make them more relaxed, more serene,

的运动，

more healthy,

burn off stress --

释放压力 --

where you don't come back into your office a raging maniac anymore,

在这运动中你再也不用像个疯狂的疯子似的回到办公室，

也不会带着巨大的压力回到家中。

or go home with a lot of stress on top of you again.

也许在如今的我们生活和

Maybe there's something between what we are today

and what the Tarahumara have always been.

塔拉乌马拉人所一直保持的生活之间有些差距。

I don't say let's go back to the Copper Canyons

我不是说让我们回到铜谷，

and live on corn and maize, which is the Tarahumara's preferred diet,

以塔拉乌马拉人的佳肴玉米和玉蜀黍为生，

但也许是介于这两者之间某种事物。

but maybe there's somewhere in between.

如果我们找到它，

And if we find that thing,

maybe there is a big fat Nobel Prize out there.

也许能获得个巨大的诺贝尔奖。

Because if somebody could find a way to restore that natural ability

因为如果有人能找到一个方式

它能让我们所有人重获这自然能力

that we all enjoyed for most of our existence

我们都能享受所存在的大部分时间用来跑步，

up until the 1970s or so,

这种我们直到大约在二十世纪七十年代还享受着的跑步能力，

the benefits -- social and physical and political and mental --

那我们从中所能获得的社会的、身体的、

政治上的和精神上的益处

could be astounding.

将会令人震惊。

What I've been seeing today is there is a growing subculture

我今天所看到的是，有一个成长中的

赤足跑步者的亚文化，其中的人们不穿他们的鞋子。

of barefoot runners, people who've gotten rid of their shoes.

And what they have found uniformly is,

他们一致地发现

you get rid of the shoes, you get rid of the stress,

不穿鞋子，解脱了压力，

you get rid of the injuries and the ailments.

摆脱了受伤和疾病。

And what you find is something the Tarahumara have known

你们所发现的事

是塔拉乌马拉人很久以前就已经知道的，

for a very long time:

that this can be a whole lot of fun.

这赤脚跑步能带来很多乐趣。

I've experienced it personally myself.

我个人亲身曾经历过。

I was injured all my life; then in my early 40s, I got rid of my shoes

我一生都在受伤，在我四十出头的时候我不穿鞋子

and my running ailments have gone away, too.

我身上的疾病也随之消失了。

希望我们都能从中受益。

So hopefully it's something we can all benefit from.

非常感谢大家来听这个故事。谢谢大家。

I appreciate your listening to this story.

Thanks very much.

（掌声）

(Applause)