Sherpa distance runners?

They've adapted to their environment in a drastically different way than Rift Valley populations. They have more in common with native Bolivians, who are not great runners.

The Sherpa population tend to be short sturdy build people who's skelatory system is not build well for producing distance distance runners. If they had been in a warmer climate they may have evolved more like the Rift Valley inhabitants. But as it is they are better at climbing and carrying heaving loads at high altitudes not running effortlessly around a track.

Yeah that idea what knocked around a bit by a friend in highschool... while it has its obvious appeals it is by no means a realistic un-tapped source of champions

I would say that they have more in common with the great ultra runners of mexico. They would probably take the stage race in Nepal with no problem. They lack leg speed to run as fast as some marathoners but if compare them to the Peruvians whom Jack D coached, then they could have a lot of poitential.

Scaling Mount Everest is easy......there's only one hill!

800 dude wrote:

They've adapted to their environment in a drastically different way than Rift Valley populations. They have more in common with native Bolivians, who are not great runners.

How about each of the top 3 ladies in the 800m and up at this year's US nationals could get knocked up by Sherpas and we could test the theory in 16+ years.

well considering lung capacity is developed through living at altitude and is not hereditary, i dont think that they would have any advantig unless they lived at altitude

might as well just move to everest when your child is born so that they will have amazing lung capacity and you can train them so that they will be amazing

Not built for it wrote:

The Sherpa population tend to be short sturdy build people who's skelatory system is not build well for producing distance distance runners. If they had been in a warmer climate they may have evolved more like the Rift Valley inhabitants. But as it is they are better at climbing and carrying heaving loads at high altitudes not running effortlessly around a track.

Try telling that to Rui Silva, as he has been the most dominant clean 1500 runner in the sport for the last decade and has a frame similar to the one you describe.

Gurkhas (Nepalese "lowlander" soldiers from 2-3000m) were stationed in Hong Kong until '97. They regularly won the MacLehose 100km mountain race held every fall in 11hrs. Fastest non-Gurkha time was ~13-14hrs.

just because a donkey or burrow can carry a big load up a hill does not imply that it can outrun a race horse on the flats.

d0nkey wrote:

just because a donkey or burrow can carry a big load up a hill does not imply that it can outrun a race horse on the flats.

I want to party with you guys !

Off the Grid wrote:

Gurkhas (Nepalese "lowlander" soldiers from 2-3000m) were stationed in Hong Kong until '97. They regularly won the MacLehose 100km mountain race held every fall in 11hrs. Fastest non-Gurkha time was ~13-14hrs.

Any good reading on the Gurkhas? Would be interesting to look into.

I think the same argument/question about the Nepalese can be made about the Swiss. If they're up there in the Alps, how come they don't dominate?

I believe Tim Noakes wrote about some testing that was done on runners from the highest altitudes, and offered some conclusions drawn from the testing in "The Lore of Running." If I recall, even the runners from Nepal, Tibet and the Andes did not have the capacities of top runners in Kenya, Ethiopia, .et al.

firerunner wrote:

well considering lung capacity is developed through living at altitude and is not hereditary, i dont think that they would have any advantig unless they lived at altitude

might as well just move to everest when your child is born so that they will have amazing lung capacity and you can train them so that they will be amazing

I'm sure there is a hereditary component to lung capacity. There is to just about everything (height, eyesight, Vo2 max, ability to pack on muscle, etc.)

Now, you are correct in saying that the offspring may not have great lung capacity of they don't work on it (ie, live at altitude), but you have to figure that over thousands of years, mountain people have evolved to have a greater disposition for large lung capacities.

At sea level the genetic freaks with large lung capacities don't gain anything. Their genes wouldn't necessarily get passed on with greater frequency. But in the mountains I imagine those freaks would have a reproductive advantage.

There is a marathon run around the base of Mount Everest which the Sherpas nearly always win. Some good runners have been over there as well to try to tek them on.

http://www.everestmarathon.org.uk/all-time-results.html

Check out the map on the other page (race route) - It's at serious altitude!

ukathleticscoach wrote:

There is a marathon run around the base of Mount Everest which the Sherpas nearly always win. Some good runners have been over there as well to try to tek them on.

http://www.everestmarathon.org.uk/all-time-results.html

Check out the map on the other page (race route) - It's at serious altitude!

Good God! At first the elevation chart looked no worse than running in Denver...then I realized those were meters, not feet. That's insane to run at over 15k ft. These guys could own Leadville!