Be Excellent To Each Other

Well I wouldn't put money on beating a Pygmy at hide & seek.

There is actually a genetic tendency for black africans to have slightly better aerobic fitness than white europeans, as I recall. Something biochemical, but I forget what. It's not PC, but it's, y'know, biological fact. To pretend that all humans are genetically identical for the sake of not offending anyone is bunk however you look at it.

I don't think anyone was suggesting that people are all genetically equal, but there's wide divide between that and racism.

I remember watching a TV doc once about something like this, ands it turned out that Australian Aborigines had better visual memory skills than Europeans. They thought it had something to do with the harshness of the Australian outback, where if you got lost you were pretty much done for, so only people who were good at memorising routes and landmarks ever survived.

Will you be following their comeback?

I'd be dead in three minutes.

I have no sense of direction whatsoever.

@Devilman - comeback? Hehe, I didn't know they were having one - the must be in their mid-thirties at least now - I hope they don't still think they are 19... And, no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Kipketer ?

Malc

Wow - they don't look anything like the people I remember - I have looked at those pictures for a few minutes now and I wouldn't have a clue which one was supposed to have grown into each of those men.

I think it is an all-new line-up and they have just changed their names by deed-poll to confuse people.

or more likely him

Malc

Oh yes, it was the second one! Yes, this is when I was about 14 or 15, and he wasn't a young man, so it must have been the second.

I told my nan I met him and she didn't believe me. The next day there was a news piece about him running in Richmond Park, so ha!

Indeed, but you try having the conversation I just proposed anywhere public...

Isn't that done fairly commonly with willy size?

Is that Roni Size's brother?

The older and more successful brother that he's dead jealous of, yes.

I think the 'black people better at running' thing is probably to do with climate and altitude. If you run in hot, horrible conditions you get really fucking robust against heat and discomfort, so when you come to the UK, a chill-paradise by comparisson, you'll have been conditioned to cope so much better in easier climates.

It's also a fairly well known fact that the ideal way to train for running is at high altitute, as there's less oxygen. This makes you blood cells a shitload more efficient at carrying oxygen. Obviously, if everyone trains and races at high altitute, there's no net gain, however if you live high up, and condition your body into an oxygen-efecant machine, when you come down from your mountain to race with the rest of us, you've got a massive advantage. The higher concentration of oxygen gives your muscles power++.

This is why Paula Radcliffe doesn't live in the UK. She lives on the top of a mountain in a foreign country somewhere. Trufax.