An inspiring study by an international runner and anthropologist who goes to Ethiopia to find out why east Africa’s long-distance runners lead the world
If you watch any major marathon in the world, almost without exception you will see a group of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners battling it out at the front. What is it that propels so many athletes from this corner of east Africa to dominate the sport of long distance running so completely?
Out of Thin Air is Michael Crawley’s account of living for 15 months in Addis Ababa with a group of Ethiopian athletes; he is there primarily as an anthropologist but also as an international-level runner. He tries to be unobtrusive: he runs, learns Amharic, eats injera and gets as close as he can to his subjects. He ventures into the forest with them on their easy training days, joins in with 3am runs around the city, ventures to far-off mountains for training camps and even takes part in a few races. Although he is a Scotland international athlete, you can’t help but admire his bravery at entering the famous Jan Meda cross-country race, where his only goal is not to get lapped. At one point he meets a bus conductor who says he once tried running but quickly gave it up because he was no good – though he was faster than Crawley over 10km.