"Every morning throughout high school, she would rise at 5 a.m. to milk the cows and do other chores—throwing hay bales, taking care of pigs, shoveling out the barn."
"Coming out of high school, she never ran more than 30 miles a week. But she was strong as a horse from the intense physical labor put in each day."
Plenty of East Africans grew up on a farm doing chores like this. Have we had it wrong all along? Maybe it's not about the mega mileage as a kid but the total body strength work in the early formative years that can prove beneficial to later success?
Does being "farm strong" early in your life correlate to running success later in life? Elle's case seems to suggest it does. She looks strong and she is strong.