Mankind as created runners, aspect of bipedalism.

Homo sapiens is a functional walker and runner and a successful jumper.
We know a lot about this from prehistorically paintings of hunting groups and depictions from Greece murals and vases.  Not to mention all modern women and men sporting this way.

Running event on Panathenaic amphora
British Museum
333-332 BC Greek archonship of Nikokrates.

Such amphora' s were prize at the Panathenaic Games at Athens. The characters in the scene are long-distance runners.

There was never any marathon race. What we call a marathon today derives its name from an event that involved the runner Pheidippides, who ran 260 kilometres from Athens to Sparta in two days. He did this to announce the Persian landing at Marathon in 490 BC, and to request Sparta' s help to beat off the enemy. He died after finishing.

Long distance running as important aspect of Tarahumara life and culture

Tarahumara are especially renown for running. They name themselves as Rarámuri,  " the foot runners," and their endurance is legendary.
History state that they once served as messengers for the Aztecs. Another story concerns the Tarahumara' s ability to run down a deer.
They couldn' t run faster, but they could run longer, until the animal dropped from exhaustion.
A well-known report dates from the nineteen twenties from the USA. It is republished on Runners World because the recently popular imitating Tarahumara (almost) bare feet running on long gravelled courses.

Long distance running as important aspect of Tarahumara life and culture

Tarahumara are especially renown for running. They name themselves as Rarámuri,  " the foot runners," and their endurance is legendary. History state that they once served as messengers for the Aztecs. Another story concerns the Tarahumara' s ability to run down a deer. They couldn' t run faster, but they could run longer, until the animal dropped from exhaustion.
A well-known report dates from the nineteen twenties from the USA. It is republished on Runners World because the recently popular imitating Tarahumara (almost) bare feet running on long gravelled courses.

http://www.runnersworld.com

A Tarahumara Run through Texas

" The New York Times ran a series of articles on the Tarahumara, including one in January, 1927, which described them as cave dwellers from the wilds of Hidalgo. " Civilization has barely touched them; they are the unsentient children of the earth." The article provided extensive – and likely exaggerated – details of Tarahumaran beliefs and traditions. As for their endurance, " Mexicans employ these Indians to run wild horses into a corral. It may take two or three days, but the horses are driven in, entirely exhausted, while the Indians finish almost as fresh as at the start" ..."

" The Tarahumara men gathered in the middle of the night on the steps of the San Antonio City Hall. The start line was changed from the Alamo at the last minute, though it increased the route to Austin to 89.4 miles (149km)…"

" …In the meantime, the women began their race at 11:30am in front of the downtown headquarters of the Austin American newspaper. Clad in more traditional garments of loose, bright red shorts, white blouses, red bandanas, and sandals, the ladies also sported bells and carried canes. Thousands of Austin citizens turned out at the start and along the course" …"

The superior Homo sapiens Tarahumara seem sound proof for a biped savannah origin of our forbears. 

But something is wrong here. Homo sapiens was presumably around for at least 350.000 years. Maybe longer than that because the number of individuals must have been small as shown by little genetic variability in the 6.8 billion people at this time (2009, United States Census Bureau), compared to that in Pan (individuals estimated between 100.000 and 200.000 (UNEP)) and Gorilla (estimated guess 120.000 (UNEP)).

A Geographically Explicit Genetic Model of Worldwide Human-Settlement History (2006) estimates a founding population, K0, of 800–1,200 individuals, ~56.000 yr.

Hua Liu, Franck Prugnolle, Andrea Manica, and Franc¸ois Balloux
The American Journal of Human Genetics Volume 79 August 2006

At least we are fairly good runners and of course, walkers.
As soon as early populations of Homo sapiens started depicting themselves, walking, jumping and running is obvious.
But those depictions are mostly linked to hunting activities.  When and for what reasons some hominids and more adapted hominines in fact started, it is not sure. There are known theories about that, but no proof.
No one has a time machine to find out what happened in reality.
This bipedal superior Homo sapiens Tarahumara seem sound proof for a biped savannah origin of our forbears. 

But something is wrong here. Homo sapiens was presumably around for at least 350.000 years. Maybe longer than that because the number of individuals must have been small as shown by little genetic variability in the 6.8 billion people at this time (2009, United States Census Bureau), compared to that in Pan (individuals estimated between 100.000 and 200.000 (UNEP)) and Gorilla (estimated guess 120.000 (UNEP)).

At least we are fairly good runners and of course, walkers.
As soon as early populations started depicting themselves, walking, jumping and running is obvious. But those depictions are mostly linked to hunting activities.  When and for what reasons some hominids and more adapted hominins in fact started, it is not sure. There are known theories about that, but no proof.
No one has a time machine to find out what happened in reality.

The familiar theories found in textbooks and as ammunition in discussions are:
 1. Because the big forests diminished gradually, distance increased between food and shelter offering trees. Walking became a necessity, carrying the collected food (and as sometimes mentioned: babies).

 2. More changes resulted in savannah like habitats. Standing upright gives a good look on possible predators and probable preys.

 3. Standing upright will diminish solar radiation on the body in equatorial regions and protect to overheating (and shedding fur facilitates cooling).

A theory is " a coherent set of statements attempting to explain observed phenomena" .
Comparing, the three mentioned here are not better than linking in the first place the bipedal adaptation to a more aquatic isolated position.
This theory does not state, that it resulted in one hominin whose offspring ended up as the one real Homo sp.
Like in all evolutional happenings, there have been a lot of variations competing about habitats, dispersed to others, isolated, dimished and running " dead" in millenniums that passed.
Based on marine biology, ethology and some archaeological knowledge I decided a more aquatic start on the road to us a better idea then empty forest dwellers and savannah trotters.

 
From land forced to island, start walking, swimming and diving, than take the chance to get is all…
© Dirk Meijers

 
It is important to realise, that Homo sapiens is not only a runner and walker, but as much a respectable climber, a very able acrobat showing spectacular jumps, sways, turns or walking on hands. 

Description: An acro dancer pauses in a handstand during a competitive dance performance before proceeding to hand walk across the stage.
Date: 2008
Author: © Jim Lamberson

There' s - as everybody knows - a lot more.

Did the genus Homo get its special features at a walkabout on the African savannah?  It seems so according to many. But there had been a much better option in a nicer habitat with food, fishing, refreshing, swimming - and walking.

Marathon, Washington DC 2004Photo: US marines ©GNU free

Bipedal mankind forerunners should have started long distance walking on the African savannah. That is the usual picture in textbooks and defended by most anthropologists. The aquatic view does not deny that modern man is a specialised walker and runner. But starting bipedal is in the aquatic view an adaptation to a necessity of wading in coastal waters. Wading, diving and swimming to obtain food from water and shores to survive could have lasted a long period.
It means that this can only be expected in an isolated island or archipelagic habitat, with possible not enough sustainable food besides that from coastal waters, pools and rivers.
Climatologic changes together with immense geological processes did take place in periods that something like that was absolutely possible.
But exactly when and where and what the creatures after such adaptations would look alike and behave, no one will ever really know …
Walking is in this view a secondary spin off the adaptation.
If sea levels were diminished even more than once – as was the situation – some of these  " adapts" could " run for it" to mainland. The coastal regions, estuaries, riversides en lakes then could give some of them numerous new chances.

To the point:
Trapped on archipelagos, ancestors of hominid and / or hominin transformed into bipedal beachcombers, forced to adapt to an in- and out of the water way of life, swimming, diving and walking as a result.
As they were connected to mainland during a substantial lowering of the sea level, being bipedal was a next " step" literally.

The lineage form forestall animals, able climbers and possible knuckle walkers, into bipedal, swimming creatures is reflected in our present versatile nature: climber, weight lifter, swimmer, diver, runner, fisher, sailor...and not to forget killer, raper, cheater, singer, xenophobic and all that, like it or not.

Running dead
Partaking in long distance running can bring humans in trouble. Transpiring when overheated, he loses much water and at the same times a lot of salt.
Dehydration lurks, but drinking water does not help. On the contrary, in those circumstances our brains take in water by osmosis. Headache and dizziness are the symptoms, mistaken for dehydration. Over pressured neurons and axons are starting to dysfunction and this can be fatal. Not drinking goes wrong also.
A modern sporter can use " sports drinks" with a moderate concentration of salt and glucose. That prevents the mentioned risks.

Basic Sports Drink
• 1 quart (32 oz) or 1 liter water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon table salt

 2.

The real number of humans that can do it without sprot drink like attributes and help is small, not withstanding Taruhamarua.
Problematic salt metabolism of humans in combination with diuretic functioning is not taken seriously but nonsense according to a lot of " anti-aquatic-ape" adepts. That seems logic if the savannah origin should be the only possible option.
The point is, that the anatomical and metabolic aspects of the human kidneys are no " fantasy" :

Marcel F. Williams
 " Morphological evidence of marine adaptations in human kidneys"

Medical Hypotheses, Volume 66, Issue 2, Pages 247-257, 2006 [9]

" Amongst primates, kidneys normally exhibiting lobulated, multipyramidal, medullas are a unique attribute of the human species. Although, kidneys naturally multipyramidal in their medullary morphology are rare in terrestrial mammals, kidneys with lobulated medullas do occur in: elephants, bears, rhinoceroses, bison, cattle, pigs, and the okapi. However, kidneys characterized with multipyramidal medullas are common in aquatic mammals and are nearly universal in marine mammals.

To avoid the deleterious effects of saline water dehydration, marine mammals have adaptively thickened the medullas of their kidneys – which enhance their ability to concentrate excretory salts in the urine. However, the lobulation of the kidney' s medullary region in marine mammals appears to be an adaptation to expand the surface area between the medulla and the enveloping outer cortex in order to increase the volume of marine dietary induced hypertonic plasma that can be immediately processed for the excretion of excess salts and nitrogenous waste.

A phylogenetic review of freshwater aquatic mammals suggest that most, if not all, nonmarine aquatic mammals inherited the medullary pyramids of their kidneys from ancestors who originally inhabited, or frequented, marine environments. So this suggests that most, if not all, aquatic mammals exhibiting kidneys with lobulated medullas are either marine adapted – or are descended from marine antecedents. Additionally, a phylogenetic review of nonhuman terrestrial mammals possessing kidneys with multipyramidal medullas suggests that bears, elephants and possibly rhinoceroses, also, inherited their lobulated medullas from semiaquatic marine ancestors.

The fact that several terrestrial mammalian species of semiaquatic marine ancestry exhibit kidneys with multipyramidal medullas, may suggest that humans could have, also, inherited the lobulated medullas of their kidneys from coastal marine ancestors. And a specialized marine diet in ancient human ancestry could, also, explain the reactivation and enumeration of corporeal eccrine sweat glands and the copious secretion of salt tears.

The substantial loss of genetic variation in humans relative to other hominoid primates, combined with the apparent isolation of early Pliocene human ancestors from particular retroviruses that infected all other African primate species, may suggest that such a semiaquatic marine phase, during the emergence of Homo, may have occurred on an island off the coast of Africa during the early Pliocene.

Comparing the structure and function of the human kidney and spleen with that of other mammals did some other anatomists and physiologists inspire to the same suggestions (Westenhofer, 1942 [12]).

Salt supplementation
Man is suffering form an unstable salt regime. If his food contains enough salt en there is no excess transpiration, there are no problems.

When humans settled far from coastal regions and food did contain less salt, supplementation became necessary. It is not sure when salt transport to the inland started as a form of bartering trade. But it is clear, that frequently seashells are a part of the remains in human shelters far form the coast.
A connection seems obvious. Supplementing the diet with salt could be as old as mankind itself during his colonizing of the continents.
In the Mediterranean first trades are found for Neolithic periods 4000 y BP, when agriculture dispersed and resulted in depleting salt in the diet.

See
http://www.chemheritage.org/educational services/pharm/antibiot/readings/salt.htm

[10] Geologist Richard Cowen' s essay on the importance of salt in history

Substances in motion: Neolithic Mediterranean " trade"
In: The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory, eds, Emma Blake & A Bernard Knapp Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt

[11] The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory (Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology): Inland trade in Neolithic period around the Mediterranean of salt, produced from salt ponds.

As a spin off, the invention of the use of salt as a preservative for meat and other foods is easy to imagine. And that seems to be one of the basic starting points for many old civilisations. We know this from China, the Middle east - Jericho was a central trading post for salt -. The same seems to be the case in Central America. In ancient times, salt (or the lack of it) could drastically affect the health of entire populations. Trade in salt was very important, and salt was valuable enough to be used as currency in some areas. The Latin phrase " salarium argentum," " salt money," was part of the payment made to every Roman " soldier" , and the word has been carried down the ages into the English word " salary" and " sale" .

In this perspective it is rather odd, that generally salt is brandished for many ailments in man. People advocating a " natural" diet, are convinced that a low salt diet is the real thing. This lead to a hype in de USA, around the made up diet of our ancestors: the " Palaeolithic Diet" . It is related to the view that we originated on salt depleted savannas. And that could easily be wrong:There are outcomes of epidemical studies, indicating that salt depleted diets do not influence high blood pressure and do produce more heart failures than a more salty diet.

Backgrounds on Marathon, salty dispute
Preventive Cardiology of Victoria      
Texas  USA

…." Since we have discussed how excess salt and consuming excess salt over a lifetime causes increased BP and elevated BP as Americans grow older, let' s look at some other factors that affect BP and see how important they are for preventing and treating HTN.
The human Paleolithic diet was probably 2-3 times higher in potassium, calcium, and magnesium than that of modern man.  The ratio of potassium to sodium was at least 5-10 to 1 in our ancient ancestor' s diet compared to only 0.6 to 1 in the typical American diet today.
Potassium depletion exacerbates HTN so it is important to make sure you are getting enough of this mineral.  Potassium is found in a wide range of whole-unprocessed foods, especially fruits, vegetables, beans, milk, poultry and fish.

Water balance research acknowledges that salt regulation in man is a problem and that loss of water by transpiration can be profound [13, 14]

Food experts are seriously divided about this.

If man indeed has a relative high need of salt in his diet and a bad feedback system to control the concentration dehydrating conditions are especially harmful for his brains. That contradicts an original savannah origin.

To repeat it:
" The substantial loss of genetic variation in humans relative to other hominoid primates, combined with the apparent isolation of early Pliocene human ancestors from particular retroviruses that infected all other African primate species, may suggest that such a semi aquatic marine phase, during the emergence of Homo, may have occurred on an island off the coast of Africa during the early Pliocene [9]" .

Central point is that the genus Homo should be an able bipedal savannah marathon runner for at least two million years. But looking into the physiological shortages for Homo sapiens this seems to be not the right idea.
Jogging along the beach, trotting a riverside or around a lake, diving for oysters, catching fish: as Homo sapiens I postulate it to something much better and more pleasant bipedal start.

And, I admit, even as scientist, I cannot resist my imaginative faculty.
That lead me to a an acceptable theory about originating adaptations for some forebears millions of years ago, being isolated on scarcely productive archipelagos.
The next step could more plausible be the reach of continental coasts and disperse.
One point is repeated rising and lowering of the sea level, with after every lowering a new type of hominin that appears on stage…

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