Rick Fisher

Rick Fisher was a wilderness photographer who was intrigued by the Tarahumara and questioned why, since they were such great runners, the Tarahumara weren't shredding the competition at hardcore races. He went about achieving this goal by putting together an all-Tarahumara team for the Leadville race. During his first attempt, he was unsuccessful, and all of the Tarahumara dropped out less than halfway through the race. On his second attempt, however, he brought more experienced Tarahumara and this time, they got three of the top five places in the race.

"Born to Run" has been surprisingly interesting thus far, although I do feel that the author goes off on random tangents quite frequently. Whether or not everything will eventually become truly important to the story remains to be seen, so it is probably best not to pass too much judgment on it at this time. Regardless, this can be quite irritating at times; it seems like, instead of moving the story forwards, the author is moving farther and farther into the past, to the point where it's become kind of confusing and I've begun to forget what the original layer of the story was about.

The Tarahumara

The Tarahumara are an elusive "stone age" tribe living in the Copper Canyons- the Barrancas del Cobre- commonly described as "super-athletes." They have been said to travel in ninety minutes what a mule might travel in ten hours. They practice the old hunting technique, similar to that used by the Kalahari Bushmen, of relentlessly pursuing their prey until it lays down in exhaustion. This method allows the Tarahumara to catch a deer "with their bare hands."
The Tarahumara are said to possess the secret to a powerful energy food. This has remained a secret because of their remote location in the Barrancas, an area easily comparable to the Bermuda Triangle because of the number of people lost within them. "Canyon Fever" is the culprit for these disappearances; the area is said to feel like a crypt, and people go crazy within it and frequently commit suicide.