Were you in a hotel in Eldoret or were you actually living with the people there? I have spent a considerable amount of time there and I am confident that poverty is one of the biggest factors. Of course, it is not the only one... or else every poor country would produce fast runners. But it is HUGE.
I think the elevation is a red herring. I think the physiological advantage that Kenyans of certain ethnicities display more often than others is simply neruomuscular running economy and it probably is a spandrel - a side effect of some other adaptation. Physiologists have put Kenyans on non-running endurance apparati like elliptical trainers and bikes and the advantaves disappear. Take a 2:05 marathoner Kenyan and put him on an endurance test against a 2:12 non-Kenyan marathoner on a bike or elliptical or cross-country skiing and I bet the advantage you see in running disappears.
Why aren't all the other students who have gone to Big Bear Lake high school world class runners? Altitude plays a role in the East Africans' (and Ryan Hall's) success, but there are many, many other factors at work as well, including a microevolutionary climate that has favored the survival of people in east Africa who can cover long distances. This factor has been at work for a few thousand years. If you can't travel long distances to find grazing for your herds, you starve to death. Therefore the environment selects for people who CAN cover long distances on foot. So I would say it would take a while to undo something that has developed over thousands of years.
Sean Nunn
Raytown South
[quote][ Physiologists have put Kenyans on non-running endurance apparati like elliptical trainers and bikes and the advantaves disappear. quote]
If they had been training on Ellipticals most of their lives, would those advantages have "disappeared" in testing? If this was truly part of some study trying to demonstrate an evolutionary running specificity, then it was flawed(SUCKED).
the mighty mcdonalds empire (see dollar challenge thread)would crush in one generation what was built over thousands of years of genetic sharpening.
Huge engines are developed over generations. If you measured the Vo2max of someone from Nepal or Peru you'd find similar huge engines. But, a huge engine doesn't move you forward. Your body does. If you put a huge engine in a Yugo, you're still driving a Yugo. If you put a huge engine in a Mustang you are going to go FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST.
For those too young to remember:
Alan