Hypothesis

I think that the culture and style of Kenyan running is based on necessity, and that this has lead to Kenyan dominance of long-distance running.  I think that young people in Kenya may be motivated to run professionally in order to have a better future for themselves and for their families.  This incentive combined with Kenya's history of running is what I believe has caused Kenyans to have such a large presence in long-distance running.  Other factors involved may be food and elevation.   

Altitude: Is it a Factor?

Before beginning on culture, I've taken a look at the aspect of altitude.  It is a popular belief that because the Kenyans are at such a high altitude, this causes them to be better endurance athletes.  This is somewhat backed by evidence: as the air at a higher altitude is thinner, the body produces more hemoglobin/red blood cells (in order to adapt to the decreased amount of oxygen), and it seems like this extra hemoglobin would then help an athlete down at sea level, because they would still be able to produce more oxygen (Grimes).  But the problem is, there is no undeniable proof that this is true, and the tests that have been done measuring the performance difference at sea level after high altitude training have come up with different results: some athletes have improved, others haven't (Baker & Hopkins). There is even evidence to suggest that training at high altitudes can make athletes perform worse at sea level (Baker & Hopkins).  Furthermore, many researchers also agree that the "train low, live high"  technique, in which the athlete lives at a high altitude but does their training at a low altitude, gives athletes optimal performance; this is not how Kenyan runners live (Kopytoff).
If being at high altitudes really is such a big factor in running prowess, then of course there should be many great runners from Nepal and Peru, but there aren't.  Also, the countries of Tanzania and Uganda have high altitudes and are located adjacent to Kenya, but their athletes are nowhere near as successful as the runners from Kenya (Tanser).  For example, while the Kenyan men have won the World Cross County team championships every year for the last ten years, the Tanzanian men have never even won a medal (Tanser).  Although the high altitude of Kenya may be a factor, I don't think its the biggest one, and its definitely not the only one.

Culture: Group Running

One simple thing that I've found over and over is the idea of never running alone.  This may stem from the very important communal culture of Kenya.  This approach corresponds to ideas of helping one another, mutual responsibility, etc.  Unlike the western "every man for himself" idea, the belief of "Harambee" or "pulling together" is and has been prevalent in every ethnic group in Kenya ("Kenya").  This also translates into family life, in which large families live close together, and families join together when people marry ("Kenya").
Similarly, Kenyan runners often join together to train.  In fact, most runners who are trying to become international athletes move somewhere where other runners live to train (Tanser).  As Richard Chelimo, a Kenyan medalist in the 1992 Olympics, says, "You cannot make it to international standard if you are training alone; you need the company of others to push you when you are tired," (Tanser).  Kenyan runners use this philosophy not only in training, but in racing as well.  There seem to be two parts to this: racing together, but also racing for each other.
In the World Cross Country Championships of 1994, the places of the top six Kenyan runners ranged from first to twelfth, while the places of the top six Ethiopian runners ranged from third to forty-third ("IAAF").  The Kenyan team won that year, while the Ethiopians got third ("IAAF").  The fact that they stick together helps them.
Yet also, instead of aiming for an individual win, they focus on the team.  Often, their race strategy is based on this.  For example, although Simeon Rono of Kenya thought that he could have placed in the top 5 in the 1995 World Cross Country Championships, he sacrificed his own race by going out too fast in order to help the team (Tanser).  Once again, the Kenyan team placed first in this race.  Kenyan runners focus on the team, and this seems to benefit them in the long run; as Simon Chemoiywo puts it, "when we live, struggle, and work together a victory by one of us is for all of us," (Tanser).
Although this may not seem completely relevant to why so many individual Kenyan runners are so successful, I think the difference in thought is interesting.  While many western professional runners train with an individual coach, by themselves, or perhaps with one other athlete, Kenyan runners often train in large training camps, in which the runs include 50 other world-class runners (Tanser).  There haven't been any studies that I know of about this, but I think the dominance of Kenyan runners must be related in some way to their strong team spirit. 

Group of about 200 runners training in Iten, Kenya 

Persistence, Determination, and a Love of the Sport

Although this is a generalization, it seems that Kenyan runners need to be very persistent and determined in order to 'make it'.  Because of the disproportional amount of great runners in Kenya, many talented runners don't make it to international races.  In fact, in one year there were 278 Kenyan men who ran the Olympic qualifying time, while only two British men accomplished this (Finn).  This means that while a runner may only be ordinary in Kenya, he or she could be outstanding in another country, but they still wouldn't be able to make the national team.  This may lead to Kenyan runners working harder, and pushing each other more in a never-ending circle in which they will only get better.
Many Kenyans agree that "hard training is [their] secret" (Tanser).  Most Kenyan runners will train for years and years and become amazingly skillful runners, but will never get any recognition or chance to show their skills because they are overshadowed by their other more talented teammates.  Yet still, they train on.  These ideas of persistence are reflected in the dreams of hopeful runners such as William Kiprono, who says that he "[knows] he will make it with hard training" even though he has been exclude from the national team for years (Tanser).  Japhet Koech of Kenya had trained hard, with many other professional runners every single day for five years without getting anything in return.  No money, no recognition. Nothing.  So why would they do this? Brother Colm, who has coached some of the most successful Kenyan athletes as high schoolers in Iten, points out that "they run hard because they love to run hard," (Tanser).
So perhaps this is the secret: they love to run.  Although there are a lot of other people who love to run too, but still aren't even close to the talent of Kenyan runners.  But it does seem to be more entwined in the running culture; that is, the love to run, the love of working hard, and the belief that it will take you where you want to be.

Diet

Kenyan runners live off of a very simple diet that is no different than what non-athletes in Kenya eat.  No preservatives, no electrolyte-fueled sports drinks, and very little meat (Burnett).  This is often because they run their own farms, and don't have enough money to spend on unnecessary foods.  Some of their common meals are ugali, a mixture of cornmeal and water, githeri, a mixture of boiled corn and kidney beans, and sukuma wiki, boiled  and chopped kale.  Dr. Vincent Onywera, a lecturer at Kenyatta University's Department of Exercise Science calls this "a paleolithic diet" because it "borrows heavily from our forefathers who lived on fruits, vegetables, roots, and lean meat," (Burnett).
Although its hard to be sure as to whether or not this actually has an effect on performance, it would be logical to assume that putting preservatives and processed foods into your body like most people in developed countries do would not help.  Even though many Kenyan athletes who have traveled because of running admit that "hamburgers are great" and that they love "a big steak with a plate of chips", few to none of them grew up this way, so, as Toby Tanser, author of the book Train Hard, Win Easy says, "this ensures at least 20 years of good food into their bodies".

Training

Similar to their diet, Kenyans take a very simple approach to training: they run, eat, and sleep.  In the times when they aren't on a run, athletes are just resting and relaxing, so that all of their "energy can be directly channeled into training" (Tanser).  Some athletes can even sleep for up to 16 hours per day (Manthorpe)!
The style of their runs is different too.  While westerners often strictly plan their rest days and speed days, Kenyan athletes usually just sort of go with however they are feeling.  Christopher Kosgei of Kenya simplifies it by saying "rest when the body is tired and worn down, not when your body is strong and can take more training," (Tanser).  This could suggest that Kenyans are more focused and in tune to their bodies and what they can do.
Once again, there isn't a good way to test which technique is best, but I think its interesting to just review and take into consideration the differences.

Motivation

Another possible factor involved is that Kenyan runners have more of an incentive to do well: its fairly likely to bring them at least some money to come home with and help their families.  45.9% of Kenyans live under the poverty line, so even a little bit of prize money would help a lot ("Kenya").  Although many Kenyan athletes don't make it to big international races, there's always the hope that they will one day.  They see many examples of runners who have trained hard, "travel abroad to race, and then return home with enough money to buy a small house, or a car," (Finn).
This is a large factor in why a lot of Kenyans train so hard, but of course, it can't be the only one.  Toby Tanser sums it up by saying that even though "the possibility of financial reward and a ticket to Europe is definitely on their minds", they wouldn't be as good as they are "without the enjoyment and ability to endure long, hard training,", which goes back to my fourth post, "Persistence, Determination, and a Love of the Sport".

What's the History?

On average, around three-quarters of the Kenyan national cross country team each year hail from the Rift Valley Province (Tanser).  The Rift Valley Province has a long history of producing outstanding long-distance runners, likely because here resides the Kalenjin tribe.  Sometimes referred to as Kenya's running tribe, the Kalenjin only make up about 12% of the population of Kenya, but make up most of the national team ("Kenya").  So I realize now that when I'm describing all of the possible reasons for Kenyan success, I looked over the fact that the country itself is probably so good at running because of the Rift Valley.  So the real question is, how did this one little part of Africa become the so called long distance running capital of the world?
Researchers such as Mike Lambert, of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa think that the Kalenjin may have a genetic predisposition to distance running due to a very long history of being good at the sport (Noble). There are many different ideas as to why this theory makes sense, mostly based on the reasons for
evolution :

• Natural Selection :  the Kalenjin were historically pastoral people, and their method of herding was running alongside their cattle, so some say that over time, maybe they evolved to be better at distance running because the herders that were good at running were more successful (Noble).
• Mutations : in any group of people, there will be genetic mutations, and in an isolated community such as the one in which the Kalenjin originated, these mutations could spread throughout the whole population.  Perhaps the ability to run long distances so well was a mutation that stayed in the population after generations and generations (Fisher).

The main argument against these ideas is that no one has ever found a specific gene that relates to distance running (Fisher).  But a few very interesting studies have been done relating to this topic.  In 1990, the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center compared boys on the high school track team in Iten, Kenya to Sweden's national track team.  The Kenyan boys consistently ran better than the Swedish athletes who ran professionally.  From this, it was estimated that the average Kalenjin could run better than 90% of the world population.  In 2000, a study was done by the Danish Sports Science Institute in which they gave a group of Kalenjin boys three months of training, and then compared them to a Danish track champion.  With only three months of athletic training under their belt, the schoolboys beat him (Fisher).  How does this happen?
Once again, it has never been proven that there is a specific gene that causes an aptitude for distance running.  But on the other hand, Mike Lambert found in a study that 72% of the boys at the Nandi (subtribe of the Kalenjin) school St. Patrick's High (in Eldoret) that were good runners were related to elite athletes (Noble). There are many other factors other than genes that could effect this as well such as each specific family's culture or traditions, but I don't think that the gene theory can be ruled out completely by lack of evidence.  It may not have been proven scientifically, but it definitely has some grounds to stand on.
As a disclaimer, I want to clarify that I am talking specifically of the Kalenjin tribe in this post, and not of all of Africa.  There are some researchers who claim that there is a so called 'black speed gene', and that is the only reason why runners of African origin are so talented.  This is not at all what I am trying to show in this post, or on this blog in general.

Conclusion

According to a study by the Danish Sports Science Institute that I mentioned in my last post, Kenyan schoolboys with very little training beat a famed professional Danish runner.  This seems to undermine the argument that the style of training and group running have any effect.  It also discredits the theory that Kenyan athletes have more of a reason to train hard, because those schoolboys weren't given anything for winning.  The 'love of the sport' idea doesn't really apply, because they had barely had any exposure to it, which leaves diet and altitude, but neither of those suppositions are exclusive to Kenya.  And finally, the gene theory has not even been proven, and of course no one can say that this is the only reason, because that would completely detract from all of the work and training that the Kenyan runners do.  I've basically found what every other researcher has that has looked into this topic has: "it [is] everything, and nothing," (Finn).
There is no one thing that sets the Kenyans apart and decides that they will be amazing runners.  It is a combination of things, from environmental factors, to psychological factors, to physiological factors.  Each one counts.
I think that the biggest thing to take from this is to not go down the route of many westerners by assuming, as Paul Tergat puts it, that "'it is just because he is a Kenyan that he runs well'" (Tanser).  I've found that a lot of people seem to think that it is all altitude, or all genes, and they overlook the fact that just like every other runner, Kenyan runners work to get to where they are, and they work hard.

Peer Reviews: Summing Them Up

I had five people review my blog, and this is what I deduced from all of their comments.

• My conclusion, although people thought that it did make some good points, is a little vague.  If I were to change it, I would probably explain more what I mean by using the quote "it [is] everything, and nothing,".  It seems that a lot of people were confused by that cliffhanger, which I completely understand.  I would definitely be much more clear in my conclusion if I were to go back.
• A few people would have liked it if I had delved deeper into the training aspect, so perhaps I could have compared Kenyan training styles with other training styles.
• One person really wanted more explanation for some parts of my blog, such as what makes Kenyans such hard workers, and what makes them love running more than other people.  I didn't go into that because a lot of that is sort of speculation, so there really isn't a way to figure that out, but I do agree it would have been a good idea to mention the why in those posts, and maybe find a few different theories.
• Another person mentioned that I shouldn't have used phrases like "I think" and "it seems like", because they made my argument less strong.  I see the point in this, however, most of the things I talk about are speculation, and just theories, so I can't exactly know things for sure.  But there are definitely a few places I see where I could have made my argument seem stronger on the commentary side by changing these phrases.
• Finally, many people agreed that if I had added more pictures/charts, it would have made the blog more interesting.  I would definitely take this advice and include more graphics if I were to make revisions.