How do feet and shoes work ¿

How does that indigenous Mexican woman (María Lorena Ramírez) run an entire ultramarathon in chanclas and presumably be fine when I buy a pair of tennis shoes with hard flat insoles and get terrible foot and knee pain? To me, both shoes would offer basically no support and be similar to walking just on bare ground.

Are my feet just weak? I bought the bouncy padded Hokas and now my foot and knee pain are totally gone. Can I ever reach the heights of the chancla woman?