Man and animal

Why run on foot from Mount Vernon to Alexandria?

This past week saw the Parkway Classic, an annual footrace from George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon to Old Town Alexandria along the George Washington Parkway.  Or rather, a set of races, for there are competitions of various lengths to suit various capabilities.  It passed almost underneath the windows of Five Colors headquarters, though we admit we didn’t go out to take part this year.

Many people did.  And when the signal is given the runners indulge in much biochemistry, though probably most didn’t see it that way.  Adrenaline hits their systems, heart rate and breathing increase, glucose is converted to muscular energy and heat.  Lactic acid builds up in the muscles faster than it can be removed, forming a limit to how far and how fast they can go.  The actual chemistry is identical to that of, say, a gazelle startled into flight by a cheetah, or that of the attacking cheetah itself.  No doubt many of the runners would be pleased to be compared to gazelles or cheetahs (while others would think it merely foolish).

But they hadn’t been startled into flight by a dangerous predator.  (At least, we’ve seen no reports of feline attacks on runners so far this year).  Neither were they exerting themselves to bring down their own prey.  And there, as pointed out by Jacob Bronowsky in The Ascent of Man, lies both the proof of man (and woman) as an animal and the difference between them.  Our means are the same as theirs; our motivation much more complex.

[Bronowsky’s television series is decades old.  One would expect it to be badly out of date by now.  But it isn’t.  His insights are still worth listening to, and we recommend finding a copy of the video or book and settling down to it.]

Why did they run?  There was no vital food at the end of the race, as there might have been in our hunter-gatherer past.  (There were tents with entertainment, a band, games for children, but no wildebeests roasting over open fires.)  Some runners no doubt thought of others as enemies or prey, but only in a metaphorical sense, and those who lost the race (however one defines losing) were in no danger of becoming lunch.  The pleasure of running, the thrill of winning (for a few) are simple labels for very complicated motivations.  And it’s quite possible that the reasons for running in the Parkway Classic were as numerous as the runners.

The motivation gets more complex as we realize that many more people were involved than just the runners.  Organizing such an event takes work; police were detailed to close off roadways; transportation, publicity, all the functions of a modern public happening were in evidence.  This was a community effort.  And a distinctly human one.

So the what is a footrace that ties humans to their most animal aspects.  But the why and how are quite distinctly ours.