October: Witchcraft

   Ask a Kenyan marathoner his secret for winning, and you're likely to get a shy smile and a shrug: I run all day long, goes the typical reply.

   It's infuriating-a nonanswer. No country on the planet dominates distance running like Kenya. Journalists, sports physiologists, and running coaches have scrutinized and dissected the training habits of Kenyan runners for decades. Books have been published. And yet the magic of that country's athletes remains as elusive as an undertaker's smile.

   Self-regarded authorities explain Kenyan predominance by way of genetics some quirk in the national gene pool creates all these world champions. Others say that because of the country's high altitude and vast plains, Kenyan runners process oxygen more efficiently. Or perhaps it's because they start training at a very early age, thanks to a scarcity of video games and automobiles.

   The explanations are unwaveringly scientific. This is the language that we Americans trust. To attribute Kenyan success to focus, devotion, and fervent desire you might as well invoke witchcraft. A victory or two could be attributed to such Boy Scout bromides, but ten straight wins at the Boston Marathon? Please.

   True, Kenyan runners train with savage intensity: extraordinary mileage at race-caliber speeds. "I run all day long" is the honest, understated explanation. Workouts rarely ease up for injury. Bloodied feet and fractured tibia are legendary. But then, distance runners from Helsinki and Hoboken surely train with equal dedication, no?

   Perhaps not. The best British and American efforts to bring running programs to Kenyan athletes have hugely failed in the results department. Cross training, interval speed workouts, state-of-the-art shoes, and carbohydrate loading tend to reduce injuries. But they don't make Kenyans run faster.

   This shouldn't be construed as a black eye for running science. Since Roger Bannister broke the seemingly impossible four-minute mile in 1954, world record holders have knocked more than 16 seconds from his time. Advances in training, diet, and shoe technology irrefutably made this possible.

   But it's also true that we overrely on it. Notice that when you're not getting the results you want, you'll try to isolate (or conjure) a problem: an overpronating step, weak lower-back muscles, you name it. This kind of deductive analysis brings great and necessary results to a workout. It also provides an easy dodge when general exhaustion or a waning drive is the true culprit.

   Notice, too, how science perpetually generates solutions you never realized you needed-sports foods, heart monitors, motion-control gel insoles. Browse through a runner's shopping catalog and you'll suddenly feel like a wobbly, suffering bag of bones. It's no wonder your split times have been slipping.

   Running science has become witchcraft in its own right. But it can distract from essential truths about your performance-that you're not working hard enough, that you've peaked, or that your ambitions shoot too high. The truth is often blunt and seemingly impossible. Likewise the solution: run all day long.