Film documents indigenous-outsider clash at a Chihuahua ultramarathon The Infinite Race looks at cultural tensions at a 2015 race in Copper Canyon
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In recent years, the world has grown increasingly familiar with the indigenous Mexican community of the Tarahumara, or Rarámuri. A source of that familiarity has been the Tarahumara prowess in ultrarunning, in which athletes regularly log ultramarathon-type mileage in the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua.
Yet, the attention they have received is in some ways a mixed blessing. International runners who flocked to Chihuahua for training or recreational purposes encountered some tensions while competing in ultramarathons against indigenous runners eking out a subsistence living amid conditions of organized crime and narco-violence.
AILSA CHANG, HOST: The calendar says December 15, but it is Groundhog Day on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are still trying to come up with a coronavirus relief package. The current bipartisan version is actually two bills. The first would deliver enhanced unemployment benefits, protection from eviction and small-business support. The second bill offers liability protections for firms and aid for state and local governments. Both of those have been divisive issues. What neither bill includes is direct payments to individuals, and that is something Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been calling for. He joins us now. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: The Copper Canyon race is no ordinary run. It is an ultramarathon - 50 miles, five-zero, so nearly twice as long as a marathon. And you want to talk hills? The course features rocks, gravel, incredibly steep terrain, also incredibly beautiful views of forests, of rivers snaking along the bottom of the canyon. It s a bucket list race. The Copper Canyon is in Chihuahua, Mexico, home of the Tarahumara people.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, THE INFINITE RACE )
IRMA CHAVEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
KELLY: That is Irma Sanchez speaking in the new documentary The Infinite Race. Sanchez is a Tarahumara rights activist. In the film, she talks about how foreigners who swoop in for the ultramarathon are surprised by how far, how fast her people can run. They shouldn t be. Sanchez says the formal organized race format may be newish (ph) to the Tarahumara, but running - it s fundamental to her culture.
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In 2013, Vibram the company that manufactures the FiveFingers barefoot shoes settled a class action suit led by consumers who alleged that the company deceived customers by advertising that the footwear could reduce foot injuries and strengthen foot muscles, without basing those assertions on any scientific merit.
This was following the heyday of the barefoot running trend. You may remember it: Some runners eschewed modern footwear to run in minimalist shoes or completely barefoot because they perceived it as being more in line with the way our bodies were naturally meant to move. It was a small, but significant, fringe group within the sport and it caught a lot of media attention.
30 for 30,
The Infinite Race. The documentary, which will air on ESPN and ESPN Deportes, focuses on the Raramurí community (also known as the Tarahumara), their running feats, the outside attention they’ve received (especially since Christopher McDougall’s best-selling 2009 book
Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen). Director Bernardo Ruiz spoke to Awful Announcing last week and said he was inspired to tell this story by a combination of his love of running films and his discovery of a 2017 article about the Raramurí.
“This is kind of an unusual film for ESPN and a