I don't think there's anything shocking about Lagat. He's remained healthy, so he's been able to keep running. Lagat is an all-time great talent. Michael Jordan retired for three years, and came back to average 21 points per game while 40 years old. Was he averaging 30 points per game anymore? No, but he was still an all-star caliber player. Lagat is now running 13:14 instead of 12:53. He is still an "all-star caliber" runner, but he is not performing at the level of an all-time great anymore. There's really nothing that mind blowing about what he's doing...he's just choosing to do it while most runners retire or quit serious training at an earlier age due to health, boredom, or other interests. Not many all-time great NBA players play at the age of 40 just like not many all-time great runners continue training at a high level at that age. Meb is still performing at a high level, Geb performed at a high level into his late 30's and early 40's. It's not without precedence. If he were still representing Kenya, Lagat would have retired years ago, most likely, because he wouldn't be able to make the teams. Since he's American, he still has the option to compete at a high level because of less talent to get in his way of making the Olympics or worlds. Lagat is the second fastest 1500 runner of all-time, and he did it off far less mileage than El-G. Given his health and desire to keep training and competing, wouldn't you expect him to still competing at a high level? I mean, when Jordan decided to come back with he Wizards, did anyone expect Jordan to come back and average 5 points per game when he was 40? Absolutely not. He had too much talent. Why would anyone expect Lagat, probably the equal of Jordan's talent in the running world, to be running 14:00 minutes at 40, the equivalent to like 5 points per game in the NBA? He's too talented for that.