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.