On January 4th I posted a back-and-forth with marathon legend Bill Rodgers in which we discussed the continued dominance in the sport by altitude-born runners from Kenya and Ethiopia:

BILL RODGERS: SPEAKING OF ALTITUDE

Among Bill’s points was “We need a Ross Tucker type (Science of Sport) to give us their input. What is the EXTRA time EPO gives a sea-level born marathoner and an altitude-born marathoner? Is it a 5% factor? Fun to speculate. ”

I e-mailed Ross in South Africa after my talk with Bill, and only now have heard back.  As Ross explains, he has had a very busy opening to 2015.  In any case, we greatly appreciate Ross’s thoughtful response, and hope that it assists in our more fully understanding excellence in today’s very competitive world of distance running.