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Kenyans dominate long-distance running. Why? To see them glidingeffortlessly at mind-boggling speeds to record-shattering marathontimes worldwide can cause bewilderment. They seem super-human,almost alien, a mere pair of lungs atop two pistons. Most of us have not attempted a single 8-minute mile since oureight-grade physical. Top marathoners run a 5-minute mile 26.2times in a row. There must be a secret, is the simple explanationto this madness. If only we slow Westerners knew the secret, we toocould run with the Kenyans. And so the British journalist Adharanand Finn moves to Kenya insearch of the answer for his book Running With the Kenyans. That alone is audacious. Making the book borderline silly, the 37-year-old Englishmanfashions himself as a potential elite marathoner after winning alocal 10k race (6.2 miles) in 38 and 1/2 minutes. To give someperspective: That s the rough equivalent of winning a backyardgame of horse and then heading to the Miami Heat summer camp totrain with Lebron James. There are easier ways to run faster than relocating with your wifeand three children to East Africa. For starters, run daily. Finn,however, has not trained seriously in nearly two decades or everrun further than 13 miles. Anyone would get faster if they trainedhard for several months, and Finn s improvements hardly seem theresult of living in Kenya. Still, while I would rather have read about an already eliteBritish or American runner testing the results of training inKenya, Finn s mix of naivet and courage (and his wife spatience and support) give him the incredible opportunity to meetand train with the world s fastest runners. He is constantlybumping into a Boston Marathon winner here (Geoffrey Mutai) or aLondon Marathon winner there (Emmanuel Mutai, unrelated) as hetrains for his first-ever marathon while also hunting down the secrets as to why Kenyans are fast. His search focuses on thestoried town of Iten in Rift Valley Province, a dusty village at8,500-feet elevation known to be a breeding ground for the world sfastest runners. Finn tallies the secrets in his notebook: Is it the shoes (orKenyans lack thereof)? The food (ditto)? The high-altitudetraining? Perhaps it s an active childhood that often includesrunning to school (and a lack of easier modes of transport). Finnalso considers Kenya s pervasive running culture, its people sdesire to win at all costs, and the simple lack of jobalternatives. Finn provides interesting details and funny anecdotesfor his points, which makes Running With the Kenyans a breezyread likely to be enjoyed by the budding young runner orrecreational jogger. But the book falters on several levels. Much of the time, Finn issimply talking to the wrong people: Asking a runner why he is fastis a bit like asking a musician how to get to Carnegie Hall. Hisresearch is sometimes shallow: as when he wrongly claims that thetop 20 fastest marathons of 2011 were all run by Kenyans (actuallyan Ethiopian and an American were both in the top 10) or when hemisleadingly says there were only 22 sub-2:20 marathon performancesby Americans in 2005 (there were 39 in the 2008 US Olympic Trialsand 50 in the 2012 US Olympic Trials). And Finn s obsession with the secret seems to mirror Westernculture s own desire for simple solutions. Finn is not the first or last to seek to pinpoint what makes EastAfricans fast. In fact, the new documentary Town of Runners released in April of this year also seeks an answer from thelegendary Ethiopian running coach Sentayehu Eshetu. His response:Eat more barley. Which is as good as any answer, really. Because in the end thesecret to running like a Kenyan is this: There is no secret.Runners run, period. Top US marathoner Ryan Hall, who trains inCalifornia, has proven that all nations can compete with theKenyans by shattering several records and heading into the 2012London Olympics as a medal favorite. I am an expert from bundy-tubes.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Refrigeration Evaporators , Compressor Tubes Manufacturer, Steel Bundy Tube,and more.
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