Dr. Joe Vigil's Strange Hypothesis on Running

Dr. Joe Vigil was a scientist with a very strange hypothesis about running. He believed that Character- love, kindness, compassion- had a direct correlation to running, and that running could make you a better person. He hypothesized that the reason greed and corruption had come to exist within human society was because we had stopped running, as nature specifically built us to do. Joe Vigil believed that the Tarahumara had such a well-structured, yet primitive, society- devoid of crime, greed, and envy- because they had continued to embrace the concept of running for pleasure rather than to achieve a specific goal.

Dr. Joe Vigil

The author, Christopher McDougal, went off on yet another tangent. I believe that at this point it is a tangent within a tangent within a tangent. Although the topics he writes about are quite intriguing, I still fail to see how any of it pertains to the story he set up at the beginning. He has yet to talk about the Tarahumara and the ultra-marathon again, and I am still anticipating the outcome of the Leadville Ultra-Marathon. I also agree with the things that Joe Vigil is saying. It reminds me of the Kalahari Bushmen of South Africa, who practice very similar running techniques when they hunt; they keep a steady pace behind their prey for miles on end and wait for the animal to tire to the point where they can basically just walk up to it and kill it with absolutely no struggle.