I've been involved in track/XC for 20+ years as an athlete or coach. Each year, I'm astounded at how many runners struggle and fail to hit mediocre times such as a 20 minute 5K despite years of training. High mileage, high intensity, low intensity, small taper, huge taper, healthy eating, none of it works for a lot of folks. Injuries pile up, and even those who don't get injured simply can't sustain a 6 min/mile pace for much longer than a mile regardless of how they train. And those are healthy, non-overweight guys.
Meanwhile, I have never seen a young male runner fail to run a sub 14 100m as long as that person has trained for at least a few months. Out of all those who can't run a sub 14 on their first attempt, about half hit that mark within a few weeks of training, and by the end of their first season, almost everyone is under 13.5. And yet, a 13.99 100m is considered to be more impressive than a 19:59 5K.
The saying that "you can't teach speed" is wrong and should be "you can't teach endurance". Almost anyone can be trained to run fast (not talking about elite-level speed, obviously), but most people can't be trained to run long.