The Tarahumara are reticent and private people who live long distances from each other, in small adobe or wood houses, or caves, or homes partway under outcroppings so that the rock itself provides the roofing. They brew an alcoholic beverage from corn, which they grow in small fields they plow by hand, and on celebratory occasions they gather to pass the drink from person to person, taking swigs from a hollowed half gourd, until they become voluble or dreamy or belligerent and lie down on the ground to sleep it off. They are extraordinary endurance runners, having lived for generations amid a transportation network of narrow footpaths through the canyons; Rarámuri means "foot-runner" or "he who walks well," and they've been known to irritate American ultramarathoners by beating them while wearing huarache sandals and stopping now and then for a smoke.
You see, the Tarahumaras are quite unique in many ways. They’ve had little contact with modern civilization over the centuries, and their main method of transportation has stayed the same throughout their existence. To get anywhere they run. Not only do they run, they most often run barefoot. In fact, they run barefoot for up to 24 or 36 hours nonstop, covering distances of up to 300 kilometers, all the while kicking a little ball in front of them. But the truly amazing thing about this tribe is that they can accomplish all this at altitudes of 2,000 meters or more.
Their legendary endurance was first noticed by the Mexican government in the 19th Century where they were often used to deliver mail to remote locations. Word of their abilities soon got out and in the 1920s the organizers of a 42-kilometer marathon race being held in Kansas, California, invited them to join in. The Tarahumaras responded by sending three women from their tribe. The organizers were obviously confused and sent a message to the governor of the tribe to inquire why he would only send women. He responded telling them that a race of only 42 kilometers was a sissy race for women only.
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