百克基儿女“跑”进梦想人们运动的目的各不相同,有的纯粹为了娱乐,有的为有一副好体格,还有的为脱贫致富。 地球上有这么一个隶属埃塞俄比亚,位于东非大裂谷周边,人口仅有 33000 的贫困的农牧民聚居小村镇,这里的很多孩子很小就开始光脚苦练长跑,他们希望在大赛事中获胜,赢得高额奖金,过上梦想中的生活。扭转命运的渴望、从小就进行的高海拔训练,加上当地人独特的体形,一批批中长跑项目的世界纪录保持者就此造就。这是一篇让人揪心又让人感动的文章,值得细细品味。LavenderIt is half an hour before dawn in the Ethiopian highlands,and most of the town of Bekoji still 2)slumbers in the shadowsof a 4,300-meter-high volcano. On the streets, though, a silentarmy is on the move. More than a hundred boys andgirlsmany in bare feet, some no taller than the goats feedingby the roadside3)gravitate toward a vast, grassy 4)plateau onBekojis outskirts. There, a man with a 5)stopwatch, localrunning coach Santayehu Eshetu, is waiting. So intense is thehunger here for runningand its rewardsthat Eshetus6)workouts, initially meant for 25 athletes, now draw 150 ormore. Focused and serious, the runners listen to his words ofguidance before taking off across the plateau, their feet slappingthe earth in thunderous unison. “I have no doubt,” says Eshetu,“that one of these kids will be world champion.”Anywhere else, that comment might be an 7)idle boast. InBekoji, it is a virtual guarantee. By an improbable 8)quirk ofhistory, this small community of farmers and herders alongthe9)Great Rift Valley (10)pop. 33,000) has become the worldsleading producer of distance runners. Many of the fastest maleand female middle-distance runners on the planet 11)hail fromthis patch of red earth 170 miles south of the capital, AddisAbaba; the athletes attended the same primary school, trainedwith the same childhood coach, and in two cases grew up in thesame 12)thatched-roof hut.Bekoji ranks as one of sports great 13)anomalies. Here,after all, is a rural African town in which time almost stands still,where horse-drawn carts outnumber motor vehicles andneighbors greet each other by asking after their herds or crops.And yet its most famous products are 14)Tirunesh Dibaba, a23-year-old 15)blur who smashed the womens 5,000-meterworld record in June, 2008 by five seconds, and 16)KenenisaBekele, 26, who has run the fastest times in human history at5,000 and 10,000 meters. And they are just the beginning.Dibabas sisters, Ejegayehu and Ginzebe, are also world-classrunners. Several other Bekoji natives are 17)close on their heels,while hundreds of othersthat silent army on the plateauarestriving to join them.The town sits on the 18)flank of a volcano nearly 3,000meters above sea level, making daily life itself a kind ofhigh-altitude training. Children in this region often start runningat an early age, covering great distances to fetch water andfirewood or to reach the nearest school. “Our natural talentbegins at the age of two,” says two-time Olympic gold medalistHaile Gebrselassie, 35, who grew up in a village about 30 milesnorth of Bekoji. Gebrselassie remembers running over six milesto and from school every day carrying his books, leaving himwith extraordinary 19)stamina. Add to this early training thephysique shared by many members of the 20)Oromo ethnicgroup that predominates in the regiona short 21)torso ondisproportionately long legsand you have the perfectly22)engineered distance runner.本文为全文原貌 未安装 PDF 浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文No formula, however, can conjure up the desire that burnsinside Bekojis young runners. Take the case of Million Abate,an 18-year-old who caught Eshetus attention last year when hesprinted to the finish of a 12-mile training run with his bare feetbleeding profusely. The coach took off his own Nikes andhanded them to the young runner. Today, Abate is still wearingthe coachs shoes. They are his only pair, though he confesses apreference for running in bare feet. “Shoes affect my speed,” hesays. And speed may be his only salvation. Forced to quit schoolin fifth grade after his father died, Abate worked as a shoeshineboy before getting the motel job, which pays $9 a month. Allalong, he has never stopped running, chasing the dream ofprosperity his mother 23)imprinted on him shortly after hisfathers death.By Ethiopian standards, Bekoji is not a desperately poortown. The famine and malnutrition that 24)stalk other parts ofthe country have bypassed this region of potato and barley farms.Still, families in Bekojis 25)outlying villages often 26)live handto mouth, and distance running offers the younger generationone of the few ways out. Bekojis 27)trailblazer was TiruneshDibabas aunt, Derartu Tulu, who left home to avoid an early,arranged marriage and ended up a national hero, winning the10,000-meter Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 2000. As areward, the government gave her a lovely house.Motivated by such signs of success, thousands of kids fromthe villages surrounding Bekoji have moved into town in thepast several years. Many of them rent dingy rooms for a fewdollars a month and fill their bellies with what theycall“28)counterfeit 29)pasta”rolled-up wheat 30)paste eatenwith a 31)pinch of salt. Some, like Million Abate, work longhours at regular jobs. Others crowd the classrooms at BekojiElementary School, where both Dibaba and Bekele attended.Enrollment at the school has tripled over the past 15 years, andmany of the runners are too exhausted to concentrate. “Itsdifficult to teach kids under these conditions,” says the principal.“But in terms of running,” he adds, with a 32)rueful smile, “wecould beat any school in the world.”It is 33)make-or-break time for Million Abate. Though he isnow the third-fastest 1,500-meter runner in town, Abate knows,at age 18, that he needs to win a big race soon to get noticed bythe powers that be in Addis Ababa. The brutal calculation ofsuccess and failure in Bekoji leaves very little room for error: heeither makes it into Ethiopias elite, where he can finally live upto the promise of his name, or he returns to a life of subsistencefarming. “I have so much stress,” Abate says, his eyes tearing up.“Coach tells me not to beat myself up so much. But I want to liftmyself up in life, and I get very angry when Im overtaken by asingle step.” Pushed by anxiety and desire, Abate gets up extraearly these days so that he can be the first to arrive on theplateau, before any hint of light has touched the morning sky.本文为全文原貌 未安装 PDF 浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文还有半个小时,埃塞俄比亚高地才天亮,百克基镇的大部分地方仍在海拔 4300 米的火山的阴影下沉睡。然而,在街道上,一支沉默的大军已经在行动了。100 多名男孩女孩很多赤着脚,有些长得还没有路边吃着草的山羊那么高正向百克基外围的一片长满野草的开阔高地移动。一个戴着秒表的男人在那里等着,他是当地长跑教练山塔耶胡?厄舍图。他原本只是计划培训 25 名运动员,但这儿的人对跑步以及跑步所带来的奖励有着强烈的渴望,结果来了大概 150 人,甚至更多。 跑手们聚精会神地听厄舍图的指导,然后开始在高地上拉练。他们跑着,脚板齐刷刷地踏着地面,发出雷鸣般的响声。“毫无疑问,”厄舍图说道,“在这些孩子中肯定会诞生一位世界冠军。 ”如果是在别处说这种话,人们会说他在吹牛。 但在百克基,这话的确不假。 这个位于东非大裂谷周边,人口仅有 33000 的农牧民聚居小村镇,随着那让人难以置信的命途扭转,现在已摇身变成优秀长跑选手的一大产地。世界上许多跑得最快的男女中长跑选手都来自这片位于埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴以南约 170 英里(约 273.6 公里)的红土地。 这些获奖运动员往往出自同一所小学,师从同一位教练,更有两位甚至曾住在同一茅草屋檐下。百克基是运动界其中一个奇异至极的奇迹。 毕竟,它只是非洲的一个小村镇,在这里,时间几乎停滞,摩托车没有马车多,邻里们相互问候的内容都是关于羊群或庄稼。 然而,这里最著名的“产品”包括有23 岁的幻影跑手特鲁纳什?迪巴巴,她在2008 年 6 月打破了女子 5000 米长跑的世界纪录,将原纪录缩短了 5 秒。还有 26 岁的科内尼萨?贝克勒,他是迄今 5000 米和 10000 米长跑项目跑得最快的人。而他们只是个“序曲” 。迪巴巴的姐妹埃耶加耶胡和津耶别也都是世界级长跑选手。另外,百克基多名当地跑手相当接近他们的水平,还有几百人高地上的那支沉默的大军正努力加入他们的阵营。这个小镇位于一座海拔近 3000 英里(约 4828 公里)的火山旁,使得本地人的日常生活变成了一种高海拔训练。 这里的孩子常常很小就开始跑步,跋涉到远处取水、拾柴,或者到最近的一间学校上学。 “我们的天赋在两岁时凸显,”35 岁的海勒?格布雷希拉希耶说,他在百克基以北约 30 英里(约 48.3 公里)处的一个村庄长大,曾两次夺得奥运金牌。他还记得自己很小时,每天上学都得背着书来回奔跑超过 6 英里(约 9.7 公里),这练就了他那非凡的耐力。这种早期训练,加上当地的主要部族奥罗莫族成员大多拥有独特的体形上身较短,而下身则长得和上身不成比 例造就了完美的长跑运动员。然而,百克基年轻跑手内心炽烧的激情,则不能轻易如法炮制而成。 以米里昂?阿巴特为例,这个 18 岁的青年去年赤脚参加了一次 12 英里(约 19.3 公里)的训练,跑完全程后他的双脚流了很多血,引起了教练厄舍图的注意。 厄舍图脱下自己的耐克鞋送给了他。今天,他仍穿着教练的那双鞋,那是他拥有的唯一一双鞋,尽管他说自己更喜欢光着脚跑,“鞋子影响我的速度,”他说。而速度可能是唯一能帮他脱贫的希望。父亲死后,当时正念五年级的他被迫退学,先是当擦鞋童,然后找到了汽车旅馆这份每月 9 美元工资的工作。 在此过程中,他从未停止过跑步,从未停止追寻在父亲死后,母亲寄予自己的致富梦。按照埃塞俄比亚的标准,百克基不算赤贫之地。 这里盛产土豆和大麦,没有国内别的地方经常遭受的饥荒和营养不良这些问题。 但百克基边远山区的人们仍只是勉强能糊口,而长跑是年青一代为数不多的出路之一。百克基的长跑先驱是特鲁纳什?迪巴巴的姨妈德拉图?图鲁,她为逃避年少时的包办婚姻而离家出走,最后成了国家英雄,于 1992 和 2000 年两度赢得 10000 米长跑奥运金牌。 作为奖励,当地政府送给她一套漂亮的房子。在这类成功标志的激励之下,过去几年里,百克基周边村庄有数千名孩子迁居到镇上。他们中的很多人以每月几美元的价格租下黑暗邋遢的房间,用他们称之为“假面条(一种大麦面糊卷)”的东西就着盐填饱肚子。一些人像米里昂?阿巴特一样找了份工时相当长的固定工作,另外一些人则涌进百克基小学就读,迪巴巴和贝克勒都曾在这所学校就读。过去15 年来,在这所小学注册就读的学生人数上升到原来的三倍,很多长跑选手都因为疲惫的训练而无法集中精神听课。 “在这种情况下很难教授课程,”校长说道。 “但在跑步方面,”他苦笑着补充道,“我们可以击败世界上任何一所学校。 ”对米里昂?阿巴特而言,现在是成败与否的关键时期。尽管他现在在镇上的 1500 米跑中排名第三,但他知道,已 18 岁的自己需要在大赛事中胜出才能吸引亚的斯亚贝巴的“大人物” 的注意。 在百克基的激烈竞争中,他没有多少失败的余地:要么成为埃塞俄比亚的精英,最后过上与其名字寄望相符的生活;要么只能回家,种地糊口。 “我压力很大,”阿巴特眼泛泪光地说道,“教练让我不要把自己逼得这么紧,但我希望改善自己的生活。每当有人追上我一步,我就会觉得很生气。 ”在焦虑和欲望的推动下,这些天,阿巴特起得特别早,以便第一个到达那片高地训练场,那时天上还没有一丝亮光。本文为全文原貌 未安装 PDF 浏览器用户请先下载安装 原版全文