Kenyan Clarity

We, we, we. Randy, you are a wannabe and you are fulla shit.

What I want to know is- do Diane Cummins, Michael East, Kelly Holmes, Paula Radcliffe (especially), Andrew Letherby, all three Australian top finishers in the women's marathon, etc. etc., talk or not talk when they train? They all beat the Kenyans rather easily last week (except Letherby, but he pipped a much higher-regarded Kenyan).

I must be Kenyan too because I grunt a lot when running at 5 minute pace.

Old bud- Radcliffe defintely is doing something right. I do not think those men have the Kenyan men shaking. You can accept or deny that the Kalenjins have a phenomenal number of top world class runners. Their population is about the size of a small to medium city and they can beat the rest of the world combined. You can be obsessed with talking while running if you wish. You should read a boigraphy to inspire you and pretend for a moment that Kenyans do not exist, then reality will eventually set back in.

Stinkflesh- Life is good at DUKE, hope all is well with you.

Kalenjin Wizards

"How do you think they do it?"

"I don't know!"

"What makes them so fast?"

Ain't got no distractions

Don't got no jokes to tell.

Won't ever hear them talking

They run by sense of smell.

Always get the trophy

You'll never see them fade.

Those deaf, dumb and blind guys

SURE RUN A MEAN 10K!!!!! (Da-na,na-na, da-na-Na-na-na)

It's safe to say that at any one time Hodgie-San has run a faster marathon than anybody else visiting the board. That is not being disputed by anybody...

Remember, the initial question here was regarding whether or not the Kenyan, or more specifically the Kalenjin society develops adults who are more apt to have a mind that can be stilled when the need arises. Why do I think this should matter? Because, any thought or action that is not related to the task at hand is bleeding off ones limited energy supply. So it sounds logical that by abstaining from conversation during activity, one has a better chance of shutting the mind down. If you can shut it down, so that clarity results, one can listen in awe and react instantaneously; as you would expect a baby placed in a new and serene environment would, to all the senses that are being triggered. More acute senses can be expected of someone with great vision. I expect that the typical Kalenjin elite has a vastly different vision of running than the typical American elite, and believe this is the primary reason why we are so far behind them come race day.

Many great men have come before us, and even more will come afterwards. None of them are identical, but one thing they do share is a great intuition, and an even greater desire to manifest it. You may have heard the phrase in regards to genius, "...one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration..." So, lets not belittle RandyMayes, or anyone else who shows signs of extreme passion to understand their intuition and ultimately fulfill their destiny.

just what exactly is going to be put on the table that hasnt been overdone on the kenyan phenom. All are theories, with no clear science to back up anything. Just reread the article from runner's world "white men can't run" from like 1992. It says the same shit that everyone has been saying for the past 10 years, there's nothing new on this topic.

All very interesting. Great athletes train very hard, some even grunt commands to their fellow athletes. Always has been.

Check out times that are being run at the traditional road races around the country and you will find that for the top ten men, they are not that much faster than they were 20 years ago.

American men though, have nearly disappeared from that scene.

I have alot of respect for the Kenyan athletes but I see no need to create "myths" around them. All great athletes train very hard, talk or no.

run run run- The way we advance knowledge is through testing theories. Is there a problem with that. It may take ten theories before one passes the test. Being negative neither debunks or forwards any idea. I'm not sure of any useful purpose it may serve.

Legalizit-There seem to be several provencial types who have difficulties articulating anything useful to our discussion. If the current state of Kenyan dominance is unsettling to them the near future may cause them to join a monastery and make marmalade.

Mzungu and I are aware of several Kenyans in various stages of US citizenship paperwork. The women's running scene in Kenya has become more accepted and their true potential will be seen. It is not unrealistic that several Kenyan women could best a majority of our men's marathoners at the men's trials.

I have science to back up my findings, but it does not make sense to reveal too much now. If you study sport psychology on the brain hemisphere level, the left(analytical) naturally tells the right(creative)side that running too fast or too long is too taxing and to stop. People have different ways of overridding that natural impulse. Personalities and ways of accomplishing that are related. The Kenyans normally do not have much knowlege or use for the western psycholgy discipline. They have another way to address that. That is where your clarity and my inner strenth interface. It is right in front of the skeptics faces, however they refuse to see it.

Do you agree that Sperry's split brain experiments showed

that each hemisphere has its own "personality" sort of

like Dr. Strangelove.

Most pathways/spiritual traditions indicate that the

thinking verbal intellect is the problem, and devise

techniques to incapacitate it or wear it down.

Clarity is usually meant to describe a state that is

beyond thinking, seeing things clearly without words or

the intellect. Clarity is beyond culture, conditioning,

and the ordinary constructed reality of ordinary

consciousness.

I do not agree that it is thinking but rather overthinking.

I do not agree it is "the" problem but a problem. It was Steve Holman's situation. He was always overthinking when he should have been relaxing. He actually pushed to hard.

His solution was exercises to think positive. His sport psychologist said you cannot be simutaneously thinking positive and negative thoughts.

I do not know if that conflicts with your two brain theory, but it definitely helped Steve. He won the national championship right before he retired.

is how people lump every distance runner from the nation of Kenya into the same boat, as if they all share a unique "training philosophy" or "mindset." I'm sure there are commonalities, but to listen to the self-professed scholars and know-it-alls that populate these message boards, you'd think that there's a nationwide f***ing alarm clock that sounds through the entire Rift Valley at exactly 6 a.m. each day, when EVERY SINGLE KENYAN goes out for a ten-miler at 5:00 pace (no talking allowed). Then the process is repeated at 10 a.m. and again at 4 p.m., because ALL KENYANS train three times a day, all of it just above (or is it just below) lactate threshold pace (which, of course, is the same for all Kenyans).