I think Trog is right. Matthew Syed who is a sports writer for the Times and a former olympic table tennis player has just released a book called Bounce. He has looked at the up to date science etc and (I think, I have only read extracts) concludes that those who achieve at a very hich level in almost every endeavour simply work harder. You get out what you put in.
Looks like an interesting read.
Should have worked that out first ! 2000 hrs you've got to be Kidding
This is a good question and one that I thought about alot when I started fell running. Having significantly improved, with a small amount of time on the fells, I am starting to believe that those runners at the front are human and beatable after all. Desire and belief has alot to do with it but I honestly think that I can get within 5 mins of Bailey et al in next years Long Mynd (18 this year but lost for about 10 mins of that).
Al told me once that in watching the front boys, the biggest difference was there ability to recover and go straight after a heavy climb. If you can develop your fitness to improve significantly here the margins will be smaller.
The Journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step
I don't think the difference can be purely due to hard work. If you look at kids in the playground, some are faster than others. This is normally due to their gait and natural physique. If you took a whole class of kids and they all trained like olympic athletes, you'd still find the best ones to start with were the best ones to finish with.
I'm fairly sure I could get closer to the elite of fellrunning, but probably not quite as good. I am guessing that most of them have natural ability plus application.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is how old you are when you're trying to make these large improvements. I think if you're into athletics and running as a kid, your body can adapt a bit more than it can when you reach my age.
I have simular times to The Reverand (at least I did 25 years ago) and i am sorry to say that if you have already been training for several years no matter what you do it is highly unlikly you will ever compete with the very top guys.
It is as they say ,all in the genes.the question of "how to become a champion?" was answered years ago"choose your parents wisely".
The one stipulation I would say is that unless you have trained up to and above 100mpw then you will never know your full potential