How to Run With the Kenyans Pt. 2

This is part two in a series on my time training with the pros in Iten, in which I diverge from the memoir to research how great Kenyans really are and why they’re so good.

Run to Children’s Hospital Fundraiser (click me to DONATE)

Olly’s Note: Though I reached the Shoe 4 Africa Hospital, I’ve decided to keep the fundraiser open as long as I’m still running in Africa (or until we reach $10,000… So close!). Thank YOU for supporting Shoe 4 Africa!!!! Toby Tanser and 30 million African kids are eternally grateful.

Re running, on Sept 25, I successfully ran to Uganda, and since then I’ve been training with some runners on their National team. The blog is a couple weeks behind, but posts on those journeys to come. 🙏❤️

Summary

In part two of my series on running with Kenyans, I detour from the memoir to research how great Kenyans really and why they’re so good. Part 1 told the story of my introduction to the legendary town of Iten and my first day training there. In part three, I will share my personal experiences running and living with Iten athletes for five days, as well as my conclusions about what makes Iten so special.

How much do Kenyans actually “dominate” running?

There’s been a lot of academic research on Kenyan and East African dominance in running, but most papers seem to take as a given that the scale of their greatness is remarkable compared to other countries in sports across history. I was curious to understand just how great the Kenyans really are. One study reported that, in 1987, Europeans held 48.3% of positions in the all time top 20 lists in the distances from 800m to the marathon. By 2003, the percentage of Africans in the top increased to 85%, 55.8% of which were Kenyans.

Kenya’s reign continued to expand until 2012. Stephen Lane wrote in a recent article, “In the Olympic years from 2000 to 2012, Kenyans owned exactly half of the world’s top 20 times in men’s distance events. In 2016, that percentage had slipped to 40. And in the last two Olympic years, 2021 and 2024, it was only a quarter.” Lane attributes Kenya’s recent slight decline to improved anti-doping practices and to other countries like Ethiopia and Uganda catching up.

In the marathon, however, Kenyans still seem to unequivocally lead the world. The most telling resource for me was looking at the top marathon times in the past year. 64 of the 98 fastest marathon men in 2024 wear the Kenya (36) or Ethiopia (28) flag. Furthermore, only 3 of the 50 fastest male marathon runners in 2024 were not of East African descent.

For comparison, I looked at the world rankings for other sports with individual athletes. Most do seem to actually have clear leading countries: 7 of the 40 (17.5%) top cyclists are Belgian, 10 out of 50 (20%) top swimmers are American, 11 out of 50 (22%) of the top sport climbers are Japanese, and 6 out of 40 top male tennis players (15%) are American. But these countries don’t have nearly the depth of leading athletes as Kenya.

The closest analog I can find to Kenyan achievement in the marathon in 2024 is niche sports or single events with indisputable champion countries: South Korea in women’s archery (10 consecutive gold medals), China in table tennis (37 of 42 gold medals ever given out), and USA in men’s 4x100 swimming relay (every gold from 1960 to 2020). Still, I don’t think these entire sports/events have the depth to make a direct comparison to Kenya’s 36 of the world’s 98 fastest marathon athletes in 2024.

Why is Kenya awesome at running?

Like I said, there’s already been a lot of academic research trying to answer this question, but here are some more rogue, non-academic thoughts from a guy who ran to and with the Kenyans.

Genetics

There’s no doubt in my mind that genetics can explain East African’s exceptional running achievement. But Kenya has more high performers and less than half the population (56m) of Ethiopia (132m). Across all East Africa, Kenya only accounts for 11% of the population (504m). So how can genetics explain Kenya’s success?

It’s possible to shift the genetics conversation from Kenyans to the Kalenjin tribe alone, which produces most Kenyan champions. I’m not entirely opposed to this, but after running the entire length of Kalenjin territory, I can’t seem to let myself to treat the Kalenjins as an isolated distinct genetic group as the studies do. The Maasai before the Kalenjin and the tribes afterward have often been indistinguishable to me, and plenty of villages inside Kalenjin territory showed no signs of aptitude for running.

Altitude

Genetics not entirely ruled out, I remain convinced there are more important factors at play. How about altitude? Nope. A cool study I found shows that Ethiopia has more than three times as many people living at or above 1500m. These are the top five countries with people living at high altitude.

1. Ethiopia, 100m

2. China, 80m

3. Mexico, 70m

4. Kenya, 30m

5. Iran, 23m

Training

Does Kenya have superior training practices? I don’t think so. As I write from Uganda, I’m following the same marathon program with the runners here. I’ve documented it below for your reference.

Daily Target: 30km/day

Monday

• Morning: Moderate run 17-20km

• Evening: Easy run 10-12km

Tuesday

• Morning: Fartlek 18-20km or speed work (track)— Hard

• Evening: Easy run 10-12km

Wednesday

• Morning: Moderate run 17-20km

• Evening: Easy run 10-12km

Thursday

• Morning: Fartlek 18-20km

• Evening: Easy run 10-12km

Friday

• Morning: Moderate run 18-20km

• Evening: easy run 10-12km

Saturday

• Morning: Long run 30-35km

Sunday

• Total rest

Running Culture

I asked an Iten runner if she had seen people show up in town with no speed and then become very strong. She said yes, many times. She told me that the people are supportive here. No one will tell you to go home if you’re slow; instead they encourage you to keep trying. From the very bottom, the culture feeds on lifting up the weakest.

I had assumed that, in a sport with hundreds of competitors and only three medals per event, people would be fierce with each other. What I failed to take into account is that there are enough marathons to go around for everybody. Road marathons are held everyday in different cities around the world. They each can pay prizes up to seven or ten places. The more marathon winners, the more money coming into the community, the merrier. So, marathon economics do reinforce supportive communities like Iten, but then all marathon communities in East African countries should enjoy the same incentives as Iten, right?

The more I think about this, the more I think it’s plausible that a healthy, supportive culture can reinforce itself until that alone sustains its success. For example, when one runner becomes successful, they can help another buy shoes for training. They can keep paying it forward until the number of champions who have received support and paid it forward eclipses the number of champions produced by less supportive communities.

Consequently, I do believe the answer to Kenyan greatness ultimately lies in the culture, and in part three I will dive into my lived and felt experience of the beauty of Iten’s culture.

TBC 🏃🏽‍♂️

I regret not taking more photos in Iten. Here is the local milkman making deliveries, though.