Ethiopia vs. Kenya

There's this (mediocre) NYT article about Iten, Kenya's running town:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/sports/iten-a-kenyan-town-made-for-marathoners.html?_r=1&src=recg

And there's this doc about Bekoji, Ethiopia's analog:
http://www.townofrunners.com/
[h/t Em]

I found the Iten article's quotes about Kenyans running because they want money pretty interesting. It's exactly the opposite of why I run, but of course my parents weren't subsistence farmers, and I didn't go hungry during dry seasons as a kid. Nor was I a poor urban minority in the US playing basketball for a way out, if that's a fair comparison. I wonder if any of those circumstances make the sport more or less fun. Fun probably isn't the right word, because to be seriously good at a sport you have to work hard, which I haven't done for sports in quite a while, possibly ever. Maybe emotionally fulfilling or rewarding is the right word.

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