KERIO VIEW
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The Rift Valley Runners
| What is so special about this region of the world and its inhabitants? There have been many theories presented and many thousands of dollars spent in the quest to find the answer. Fundamentally, however, the answer is simple: some of the people in this region, particularly from certain tribes, have the genes for a body-type that is highly efficient and suited to endurance running. Why? ---- because this was what the environment of their ancestors demanded for individual survival (and, by extension, clan and tribe survival). Tens of thousands of years of wandering and migratory passage over rugged hills and parched plains and through dangerous river valleys inhabited by robbers and wild animals, driven for the most part by the never-ending quest for water and fresh grazing grounds ---- for these were pastoral peoples ---- ensured the selection of a lean, slim, medium-height, thin-legged body type. Not visible, but equally significant in these people, are heart, lung and muscle developments giving qualitative and / or quantitative advantage and physiological and biochemical adaptations that enhance oxygen uptake from the thin highlands air and the clearance of the lactic acid that causes muscle fatigue. Some of the blood and muscle enzyme activities may be particular to the Rift Valley athletes; but none of the other adaptations are --- individually and linked, they are found in other peoples living at high altitude and in other top-class athletes from different parts of the world. The Rift Valley athlete is probably peculiar in being "a total package" of all the favourable adaptations. Of course, genes are not the whole story. As the "Nature v Nurture" debate, that went on throughout much of the twentieth century, has convinced all but a fringe minority, the environment in which the genes exist and operate is also crucial. The environment of the gene carrier must be suitable so that the full potentials of the genes can be realised. In the case of the Rift Valley Runners, this has meant living at high altitude with many kilometres of walking and running every day from an early age. It has also meant a particularly frugal diet characterised by a high carbohydrate content, vegetables and milk. It is no accident, therefore, that all the successful Rift Valley Runners come from poor, rural backgrounds often many kilometres away from the nearest school. As children they would run those many kilometres to school many times, often on an almost empty stomach, before reaching home in the evening to help bring the cows and sheep into the "boma" and put the chickens in the coop. At nightfall, all their chores done, they would finally be able to take their meal of "ugali na maziwa" (maize meal and milk) or "ugali na mboga" (maize meal and vegetables) and then fall asleep. Next day, before the long race to school, their breakfast would probably be "uji" (millet porridge) and, if lucky, a cup of milk. Amazingly, this low protein, low fat, high carbohydrate diet is now approved by the sports nutritionists as being the almost ideal mixture for endurance events ---- though the Kenyans exaggerate a bit on the carbohydrate. I say "amazingly" because 40 years ago a nutritionist presented with the dietary data of a Rift Valley Runner thought the guy should have been long since dead of malnutrition and very certainly not alive and running in international competitions. Another thing about the Rift Valley inhabitants, especially the runners, is their amazing ability to consume a large mass of ugali, often without soup and rather dry, at any time of the day. It is particularly disconcerting to see this happen within a short time of their finishing a gruelling race ---- when most "normal" human beings would be dehydrated and quite likely to be nauseated by the sight and smell of food. Is this another survival strategy inherited from their forefathers? Certainly it has nothing to do with ugali per se, since maize has a history of less than 100 years of being a staple food in Kenya. Probably, it is an ability to build up the bodies energy reserves by excessive eating when conditions are favourable in order to draw on those reserves when times are hard, when food is not available or when there is no time to stop and eat. It's easy to see how this ability would benefit wandering herders of animals of the past as much as the distance runners of today. |
| Wilson Kipketer 800m World Record (97) World Champ (95 97 99) |
| Tegla Loroupe Half Marathon World Champ (97 98 99) Marathon World Record (98 99) |
| Kipchoge Keino 3000m World Record (65) 5000m World Record (65) 1500m Olympic Gold (68) 3000m schase Olympic Gold (72) |
| Saif Saaeed Shaheen 3000m schase World Record (04) |
| Paul Tergat Half Marathon World Record (98) Marathon World Record (03) X-country World Champ (95 96 97 98 99) 10000m World Record (97) |
| Daniel Komen 1500m (J) World Record (95) 3000m World Record (96) Indoor World Record (98) 2 miles World record (97) 5000m World Record (97) World Champ (97) Indoor World Record (98) |
| Moses Kiptanui 3000m World Champ (91 93) World Record (92) 3000m schase World Champ (91 93 95) World Record (92 95) Olympic Silver (96) 5000m World Record (95) |
| Julius Korir 3000m schase Olympic Gold (84) |
| Ezekiel Kemboi 3000m schase Olympic Gold (04) |
| Almost without exception, the greatest long-distance runners ever known have come from a relatively small region of the globe ----- the highlands of Ethiopia and the Kenya Rift Valley. |
| Remarkably, all of the above, except the Ethiopians Gebrselassie and Bekele, come from a geographical area of less than 10000 km² ----- and Iten and Kerio View are more or less in the middle of it !! |
| The names of Kipchoge Keino, Daniel Komen, Paul Tergat, Moses Kiptanui, Wilson Kipketer, Haile Gebrselassie, Tegla Loroupe, Bernard Barmasai and Kenenisa Bekele are legendary, as are those of Amos Biwott, Richard Chelimo, Moses Tanui, Peter Rono, Mathew Birir, Sally Barsosio, William Tanui, Paul Rutto, Joseph Keter, Wilson Boit Kipketer, Noah Ngeny, Reuben Kosgei and Richard Limo. The list is so long, and yet continues to be added to every year as new talented youngsters, such as Ezekiel Kemboi, Eliud Kipchoge, Saif-Saeed Shaheen, Augustine Choge and Isaac Songok, come to the fore and set new standards and records. |