“Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia” by Michael Crawley
This book is written by Michael Crawley, an anthropologist with a passion of running, who spends 15 months in Ethiopia conducting anthropological fieldwork on their culture of long-distance running; you know, the “other” African success story in running besides the more famous Kenyans.
In fact, as Crawley points out, “Since Abebe Bikila’s surprise, bare-footed victory in the 1960 Olympic marathon, Ethiopian men have won twice the number of marathon gold medals as Kenya. They occupy six of the top ten spots on the all-time marathon lists. They have won five Olympic 10,000m titles since 1980 to Kenya’s one, in spite of boycotting the event twice. Ethiopian men and women hold all four 5000m and 10,000m world records. Since Mo Farah started winning global titles on the track, he has only been beaten twice in major championships over 5000m and 10,000m – both times by Ethiopian runners.”
So why do the Kenyans have more of the spotlight instead of the Ethiopians? “Most of the books on running in the region are about Kenya, where it is possible to speak English, and where there are a number of comfortable hotels set up to cater for journalists and Western runners. When we speak of ‘East African’ running, then, we are actually primarily talking about Kenyan running. I was drawn to Ethiopia partly for this reason and partly because I was fascinated by Ethiopian exceptionalism: Ethiopia was the first nation to adopt Christianity, the only African country with its own alphabet and the only one to outwit European colonialism.”
Indeed, Ethiopia is different. Charming, in fact, as Crawley explains: “Ethiopia appeals to me because here the runners believe that ‘mysterious incalculable forces’ have a huge part to play in their success. Why else would they travel for hours at a time, three days a week, in order to run somewhere like Entoto? To get up at 4 a.m. to travel somewhere with hallowed ground and ‘special’ air makes running more pilgrimage than recreation.”
He then continues, “Ethiopia is a place where I have been told that energy is controlled by angels and demons, and where witch doctors can help you to acquire another runner’s power. It is a place where an anonymous runner in the forest told me, miming an imaginary scoreboard and with a completely straight face, that he had dreamt that he would run 25.32 for 10,000m – almost a full minute faster than the world record. It is a place where they tell me that the air at Entoto will transform me into a 2.08 marathon runner. It is a place, in short, of magic and madness, where dreaming is still very much alive.”
This, by the way, is why Crawley names this book Out of Thin Air. Because, firstly “We know little about the lives and beliefs of some of the most talented athletes in the world, and the feats they accomplish therefore seem to spring almost from nowhere.” And secondly, “we usually explain long-distance running success as being a direct result of a set of deterministic factors that are out of the control of the athletes who possess them, chief among which is altitude. We assume that the performances of elite Ethiopian, Kenyan and Ugandan runners are produced almost directly ‘out of thin air’.”
But surely magic and natural abilities are not the real reasons why they’re so good at this sport, right? Well, sports scientists have actually conducted a test on this. As Crawley remarks, “The Athlome Project, for instance, an international consortium of scientists working on exercise genetics and genomics, attempts to discover the ‘genetic variants associated with elite athletic performance’. The project’s director, Yannis Pitsiladis, has written numerous articles based on the premise that it is likely there is some genetic component to elite athletic performance, but has conceded that as yet none has been found.”
Crawley then elaborates, “The assumption of some sort of genetic or altitude-derived advantage comes down to ‘nature’. Runners from Ethiopia and Kenya are seen as ‘naturally gifted,’ and this extends to the way in which people talk about poverty. The implication is that growing up in rural poverty necessitates a more ‘natural’ way of life. This is characterised in media portrayals as working on the land as a child and running long distances to and from school barefoot, with these activities seen as naturally producing champion runners. We come to believe that running for Africans is something they take to easily, without thought or consideration.”
However, by focusing on the genetics advantage or natural circumstances of East African runners (with both claims are still unfounded) we are looking at the wrong things. As Crawley explains, “The tendency to describe African runners as ‘effortless’ or as ‘born to run’ masks the years of preparation and sacrifice that have gone into creating this illusion. It fails to recognise the running expertise that is specifically Ethiopian, or Kenyan or Ugandan. And it fails to acknowledge the institutional support, in fact far superior to that of the UK, offered to Ethiopian runners.”
This is what the book is essentially doing, dispelling the false stereotypes and stripping away the myths. And instead, it shows us the daily routines and socio-cultural structures that enable the habits of the runners, which mold them into some of the best in running world. Crawley done this by following the fortunes of a group of elite long-distance runners, and his attempt to keep up with them as he spend most of his time running alongside them – like learning about zigzag running or doing a local dance as a form of warming up – and hanging out with them post-run, which makes this book a semi-autobiographical account alongside the several characters that we get to know along the story.
Particularly interesting for me is how in this age of sports science and tracking devices, the Ethiopians are still relying more on their gut instinct. As Crawley recalled, “Far from the Western obsession with ‘marginal gains’ and the sports scientists trying to explain athletic success in the lab, my experience living and running in Ethiopia unveiled to me a far more intuitive, creative and adventurous approach to the sport. Coverage of the various two-hour marathon projects, the most recent of which saw Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya running 1.59.40 for the distance in Vienna, has cast Western scientists as the ‘experts’ on East African running, focusing on innovations such as carbon fibre-plated shoes and aerodynamic running formations.”
“As I was told by one young Ethiopian runner, though,” Crawley continues, “‘A scientist does not know time, a doctor does not run.’ We think of global sport at the top level as being dominated by sports science and laboratory testing, but even some scientists acknowledge that a simple running race can measure physical traits better than any lab test. To an Ethiopian runner, there is no more objective test than a simple race from A to B and the best way to learn about running is to run – a lot.”
Yes, there’s something old school romantic about the Ethiopians’ approach of going back to the basics as naturally intended; where they are focusing more on the intense, collaborative, and often rugged training methods. Methods that are rooted in the unique culture and practices of the locals in Addis Ababa that have produced a long history of world champions from Ethiopia.
The last few chapters of the book show the progress that Crawley made in his training with his group and culminating in running a marathon in Turkey together. And in the last chapter he shows the “where are they now” tribute with the update whether his running mates are now successful or not. Because, it is said that there are at least 5000 runners in Addis Ababa, who start as a big flock of birds but eventually will drop down one by one to nearly nothing, with only a few can become successful. This is the harsh reality that we tend to overlook, which of course also disproving the notion that all East African runners are naturally and genetically gifted.
So what makes the successful ones different from the flock? As Crawley recalled, a senior coach told him in Ethiopia that the successful ones “are the ones who watch with their eyes and think with their minds before they move their legs. The ones who run on emotion only can’t make it.”
THE CHAOS THEORY 