In Eugene (2012) Kenya organized the Olympic Trials for the race of 10000m. After 9600m, still 7 athletes were together, and I thought Eliud could win, because was the fastest in the race. Instead, with my big surprise, the winner was one my athlete (Wilson Kiprop) already World HM Champion in 2010, in 27'01"98, and Eliud was the last in 27'11"93, totally empty and not able to use his sprint.
Few minutes later, we were together in the room of antidoping. Eliud was silent for more than 5 minutes, and his first words, speaking with me, were "Today I understood I have no more the possibility to win a race on track. From tomorrow I will look at marathon".
Honestly, I didn't believe he could become a top marathon runner. On track, he never was a specialist of 10000m, but of 3000 and 5000m, running also some good 1500m.
Only 3 months later, Eliud ran his first HM in 59'25", but I continued to think his transfer to the road hadfto be very long and not surely successful, when in WHMCh he was only 6th in 61'52" in October.
Eliud worked several months, with patience, in proper way, following the training phylosophy of Patrick Sang and changing his mind, and, 6 and half months later, won his first marathon in Hamburg in 2:05:30.
I never met any athlete in the world with the professionalism of Kipchoge. He has full control for every action in his life, and LOVES RUNNING (like Haile, and not like Kenenisa...). He always had great interest in studying the human mind (he' was in University studying Psychology), and is able to analyse everything according to the feeling, combined with the reality.
Everytime he runs, he can add something to his confidence. This happens in training, such as in competition, and now there is no problem that he's not able to face.
For running a fast marathon, having good talent, the most important quality is the CONTINUITY. In this way, the body is ALWAYS ready for something that for the other athletes is SPECIFIC, but for him is still GENERAL, and for him few workouts of high intensity are already enough for running every time at the level of the current WR,
For explaining the consistency of Eliud, we don't have to look at some secret in his training, or in doping, or in the advantage of the shoes : WE HAVE TO LOOK AT ELIUD.
We can say that the real, and only, secret of Eliud is ELIUD. And, how happens with all the "phenomens", it's not possible to copy some ecception.