A buddy of mine sent me this video from the Somax Performance Institute in Tiburon, CA. It showcased some of their research on elite runners from Kenya and in the US:

They conclude that it’s not genetics but rather run form/mechanics that determine why Kenyas are consistently winning races versus US runners. It was very eye opening, but also firmed up a belief that I had that most of our own problems in running are not genetic, but rather problems in how crappy we run, and these problems are what get us injured and keep us from getting fast.
Immediately after seeing this video (and replaying it many times over and over again), I dug up some old running video taken last year of me running on the track last June 2010. I took frames out of that video and measured some key angles and my max/min height against those of the elites. Here are my results for 3 of the angles:
Max/Min height of when you run:

Mine was about 2″:

Stride Angle:

Here are mine on either side, note the difference:


Toe Lift Angle:

Here are mine on either side, note the difference:


Toe Lift Angle:

Here is mine on the right side:

After I saw this, I knew I had a lot of work to do to get even close to the elites! I pinged my physical therapist and told him we had to get started on these angles ASAP!
In the next few weeks, I’m going to take 2 video cameras to the track and take some video of me running at different speeds. I hope to see an improvement since last June, but also I suspect the angles are different for every running speed.