That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man.Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everyhing else we ove--everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires' it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known. Christopher McDougall
About This Quote

Everything we do, think, and feel is about running, from our earliest memories to the day we die. The meaning of life is to be a runner. Running is our art, our song, our living tradition. We are all Running People.

Source: Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, And The Greatest Race The World Has Never Seen

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More Quotes By Christopher McDougall
  1. Make friends with pain, and you will never be alone.~ Ken Chlouber, Colorado miner and creator of the Leadville Trail 100 mile race

  2. That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on...

  3. If you don't have answers to your problems after a four-hour run, you ain't getting them.

  4. Perhaps all our troubles - all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome - began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.

  5. Ask nothing from your running, and you'll get more than you ever imagined!

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