What does it mean to say Mark Kiptoo started at age 29?

He need to slow down and run more Tinman miles.

mark kiptoo should be the poster boy for collegiate and college coaches who do not allow walk ons.

imagine this scenario, kiptoo is a student at a university, you pick the school, oregon, ucla, wisconsin, colorado, a small school whatever, kiptoo walks into the coaches office and says i want to become a runner,

the coach says what is your running experience?

kiptoo says i have gone on a few jogs.

the coach says, have you run any races?

kiptoo says no.

the coach tells kiptoo we have standards to be on our team, basically, the coach has no interest in coaching kiptoo.

kiptoo leaves the coaches room dejected the coach wont help him.

what i am saying is in the USA many coaches in track (meaning teachers of running) wont give someone who is age 29 with no credentials a chance, so kiptoo could either run on his own with no knowledge of training, or worse pick up one of those you to can finish a marathon in 5-6 hours.

there are other runners who were not even runners when they were high school age example tekeste kebede, heck 2:07 marathoner and former boston marathon winner elijaj lagat had no previous running experience and was in his late20's when his doctor said you have to lose weight or you are a high risk for heart attack so he began walking, then when he got in better shape jogging, then eventually running then racing.

why dont we have stories like this? because in the USA it is thought if you are not good before age 20, then you will never be able to get good.

i wonder how many mark kiptoo's there are in the USA who just gave up because no one wanted to help them because of their so called late start in running.

What I want to know is if he had to make all the aerobic and neuromuscular adaptations in that short period as an adult or whether he played a lot of mixed sports throughout childhood and pretty easily shifted his focus.

Lydiard supposedly started running when he was 27 and got down to 2:3x in the marathon. That's something I can handle. But when Kiptoo starts at 29 and can compete with the best in the world, I want to know what this guy did!

What ever he was doing as a kid. It was not running 100's of mile year.

Mike Reneau never ran competitively in high school or college, and decided to take a class about marathoning at University of Wisconsin and ran 2:36.

Michael Wardian didn't run competitively until after college either.

Reneau "ran cross country during the off season" in high school. I get the feeling that all these zero-to-hero stories are way overblown and that the athlete underwent way more aerobic and muscular adaptation early in life than the media does justice.

Thing is that he's probably even older than his stated age too. Most Kenyan men are 4 to 7 years older than their stated ages.

40 the new 20? wrote:

Thing is that he's probably even older than his stated age too. Most Kenyan men are 4 to 7 years older than their stated ages.

Can you support that with some facts, please?

Most Kenyans participate in inter class competitons in school. Before the start of wherever field you are interested on, everyone has to run 5 miles unless you have a doctor's note that exempts you from running. Kiptoo is also in the military, they have to get up early morning and run. The military have their own games, everyone has to participate. Kiptoo started training seriously 5 years ago but he has been active in sports since he was a 5