The Kenyan Secret

I’ve told you about my pre-run doughnut exploits and now it seems there might be some basis for my relative success. The Santa Fe Reporter ran a lengthy and interesting profile of the Kenyan marathoners who live and teach at a training camp in New Mexico. Americans are astonished by the Kenyans’ unorthodox diet, which apparently owes more to Michael Phelps than Kip Keino:

Marc Esposito, a 31-year-old director of physical therapy at Santa Fe’s Therapy Solutions, LCC and amateur marathoner, has grown close to the Kenyans, especially Ndambuki, since beginning to help out at Camp Marafiki in 2007. Esposito is convinced the timing and quantity of the Kenyans’ glucose consumption plays a significant role in their running success, beyond the particularly lean physiques, large lung capacities and concentrations of slow twitch muscle fibers that genetics and training may have bestowed. “I really think there’s something to it,” he says. “They ingest an incredible amount of sugar every day.”

This is bad news for the bagel industry.