V 11 N. 36 Running With the Ethiopians a Book Review by Paul O'Shea

 

Running  With The Ethiopians

A Book Review By Paul O’Shea

 

Michael Crawley and his book cover

Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia

By Michael Crawley

Bloomsbury Sport, 257 pages, $21.21

“Life itself is a race, marked by a start, and a finish.  It is what we learn during the race, and how we apply it, that determines whether our participation has had particular value. If we learn from each success, and each failure and improve ourselves through this process, then at the end we have fulfilled our potential and performed well.”

-Ferdinand Porsche

Two legends were born in the l960s. The first Porsche 911 rolled out of a small garage in Zuffenhausen, Germany, in 1964. Four years earlier, an Ethiopian runner strode smoothly across a Rome finish line, winning the Olympic marathon.

Performing brilliantly over the years, Porsche automobiles and Ethiopian distance runners learned much and realized their full potential. 

Dozens of coffee table books have lured us with the latest Porsche 911.  Now we go under the hood and study the Ethiopian production line.

Michael Crawley’s Out Of Thin Air, Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia is a rewarding read. A near-elite Scottish runner, pursuing a doctorate in anthropology, spends fifteen months in Ethiopia, assessing how and why its runners rank at the top with the Kenyans. His writing style is fluid, his ability to capture the environment insightful.

I applaud the author for eight pages of photos that show us Michael’s training mates; the book’s cover illustration by Eliza Southwood is an artful interpretation of one of the striking photos inside.  There is also a useful index.

In 2015-16 Crawley trained, lived with and learned from dozens of Ethiopian runners in Addis Ababa, producing this welcome addition to the East African canon.  He learned Amharic, the prevailing language, and ate injera, the nation’s flatbread. He contested the Jan Meda cross country race, the international competition which also serves as the Ethiopian World Cross qualifier.

“When we speak of ‘East African’ running, we are actually primarily talking about Kenyan running,” Crawley writes in Out Of Thin Air.  “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 nation with its own alphabet and the only one to outwit European colonialism.

“Since Abebe Bikila’s surprise, bare-footed victory,” he points out, “Ethiopian men have won twice the number of marathon gold medals as Kenya. They have won five Olympic 10,000 meter titles since l980 to Kenya’s one. Ethiopian men and women hold all four 5000 and 10,000 meter world records.”  The author also reminds us that since the UK’s Mo Farah started winning global titles on the track, he has only been beaten twice in major championships over 5000 and 10,000 meters, both times by Ethiopian runners.

An assistant professor in social anthropology at Durham University in Edinburgh, Crawley came home with research for his thesis, ‘Condition’: Energy, Time and Success Among Ethiopian Runners, which earned him a doctorate, and formed the basis for this book. In 2018 he won a Handa Foundation fellowship to manage a project to help struggling Ethiopian runners retrain for running related professions.

The Scot’s running resume is impressive. In 2015 he placed fourth in the ASICS Greater Manchester marathon in 2:19.39. He is a frequent starter and high finisher in national, club and open competitions.  He ranked seventh in the UK as a junior in the five thousand, and at the age of l8 recorded a respectable 15:02 in the five.  

In Ethiopia Crawley got up early to run with his compatriots, sometimes at 3 a.m., in the hills, forests, on gravel and mud trails. Running on asphalt was limited to once-a-week sessions because of the injury threat. Much of the training was done at 2,500 meters above sea level (Boulder, Colorado challenges its running residents at 1,625 meters).

Crawley’s participation in the Jan Meda race is one of the book’s highlights.  After finishing seventh in the Scottish National Cross Country, a year later he stood on the Jan Meda starting line surrounded by the finest distance runners and most dedicated performers he had yet encountered.  Kenenisa Bekele, who won eleven World Cross titles, never won Meda. Neither did the other national icon, Haile Gebrselassie.

A six-lap race, Crawley realizes quickly after the gun, that his objective is to run with dignity--and not finish last. In fact, lapped runners  are given the ultimate punishment—they must drop out. Early in the first lap Crawley is fighting to hang on to the penultimate participant.

“My race was to avoid getting lapped, so in a sense this is a victory lap for me. I am through my bad patch and determined to enjoy using myself through this last lap.  If I was going to finish dead last in the 33^rd Jan Meda International Cross Country I was going to do so with my head held high.”  He achieves dignity, head held high.

When Michael and his partner, Roslyn Malcolm, returned to Scotland after their cultural and athletic immersion, they also brought home newborn daughter Madeleine. When Maddy is old enough, she will learn that her middle name--Tirunesh-- honors the Ethiopian woman who won twelve World and Olympic track and cross country titles, Tirunesh Dibaba.

For a few months Michael Crawley ran with the Ethiopians, learning from the experience, writing this penetrating look at how legends endure.

 

Paul O’Shea is a lifelong participant in the track and field world, as competitor, coach and journalist.  After retirement from a career in corporate communications, he coached a girls’ cross country team and was a long-time contributor to Cross Country Journal. He now writes for Once Upon a Time in the Vest from his home in northern Virginia, and can be reached at Poshea17@aol.com.