> >What are these guys eating?


I remember twenty years ago when the Kenyans really started to
dominate international distance racing, someone went and quizzed their
mothers on that. If I recall correctly they were mainly from cattle
herding families, grew up chasing cows all day long. One mom said
something to the effect that "he always drank a lot of milk".

These days it is a big prestige point for otherwise grossly failed
African states, that their runners dominate internationally. They pay
big bounties to discover and develop top runners. Not much different
from the way Eastern European countries did during the cold war years,
Rumania had gymnasts, Bulgaria weight lifters, etc. People who
otherwise would live as virtual slaves given the opportunity to escape
just by running fast. They run fast. I wish I knew more about their
diets. I will have to subscribe to Runners World, I am sure they
dissect the diets of all the top runners. Frank Shorter was a top
runner when I was running, and his training diet, as told to the
press, was "Schlitz beer and Twinkies, that's about it."