back woods wrote:
In a wealthy society, among those who have the talent to possibly run elite marathon times, those who have the work ethic to do so can usually make a better, more stable (and longer lasting) living in other activities and they generally do, with the consequence that they don't have either the time or the energy to dedicate the time and energy that would be required to obtain elite times.
Agreed. And in a wealthy society, you have to at least make a living wage in order to keep a roof over your head, which limits how much time you can spend everyday running and stretching. Meb, Ryan Hall and Rupp are about the only three I can think of that truly don't have a 9-5 outside of training.. and they all won, or ran fast times.
Plus, quantity. There are what, like 20~30 elite marathon men? Most of which have jobs, kids, are in school etc. Contrast to Kenya and Ethiopia where there are literally 7,000 people between them all training full time and not working. They are human and get injured too, but you only need 15~20 of them to make it to the line healthy.