They're also a corrective to the tendency that a lot of Americans (myself included, I admit) have to lump all African runners together. Like, "the Kenyans," or, "the Ethiopians." There are a lot of colorful personalities on display here if you can get past the hard-to-pronounce names. Especially Sammy Wanjiru, R.I.P.
Oh, and another thing they're a corrective to: people getting obsessed and/or dogmatic about form. Don't get me wrong -- form is important and I think about it all the time. But in this class I coach I was lecturing people about not holding your arms too high, not swinging them side to side, etc. etc. And some of these guys break a whole bunch of "rules" (even sometimes heel-striking ... the horror ... the horror), all while running 4:30 miles for two hours straight. So hey, whatever. To an extent, I think you run how you run. But, you know, first world problems.
Anyway, without further ado. The first one is my favorite but the second one is pretty badass too.
