Introduction

Kenya first gained tremendous Olympic success in 1968, with gold from Kipchoge Keino, Amos Biwott and Naftali Temu, in 1500 m, 3,000 m steeplechase, and 10,000 m respectively. One of us (CS) realized that Kenyan runners were very serious long before, when one day, at the Kabete track in 1964, one of them said to him: ‘We won’t be seeing you for a while, Craig – we are off to altitude training camp.’ ‘But, you are at altitude,’ he said, ‘this track is over 1500 m.’ ‘Ah, that’s not altitude for us,’ they said, ‘we’re off to Thomson’s Falls!’ (in Nyahururu, almost 1,000 m higher).