Uncover your inner athlete!

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten.. Each morning in Africa a lion awakes - it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve.


No matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up you had better be running!



Saturday, August 18, 2012

Family tree of good distance runners

I was most interested to learn through various literature that I have been reading that although all the theories about the East Africans being great distance athletes as a result of living at altitude their entire lives is only partly true. 

Almost exclusively when one looks at great distance athletes through the ages, they are mainly born and raised in rural or farming areas. The poorer these individuals are (regardless of if they are East African or not), the more likely they are to succeed at long distance running. This theory is backed up by Brother Colm the Irish chap who even in his 70s still coaches some of Kenyas worldclass athletes. He states that in all his time in Kenya he has not witnessed a athlete from the big cities become a success. 

Why the success of these folks from rural/farming areas? Quite simply because they are used to hard work and struggle and that is what long distance running is all about. City folk just don't have this inherent hardness bred into them from birth. 

Sure there will be exceptions to this rule, but I would wager that in the future this trend will continue regardless if the athlete in question is born in Africa or in the west. 

Running together stride for stride on a life changing ride. - Sean Mu

1 comment:

  1. Running With the Kenyans - well worth a read. Not quite as simple as being 'tough'. More likely much more motivated to get out of extreme poverty.

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