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".