Wow. One of the highlights of my time in Alabama was getting to meet Chris Solinsky.  He is the US 10,000m record holder and came to speak at opening  ceremonies. I learned at his speech that he did not start off as a very good runner. In his first race, he came in last place. Then he made a decision to never come in last again. He worked really really hard and became an amazing runner.

On May 2, 2010, Solinsky competed in the 10,000m for the first time at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. Not only did he win the race in an amazing 26 minutes, 59.60 seconds, but he also shattered by more than 14 seconds the previous American record for that distance of 27:13.98 set by Meb Keflezighi on the same track on May 4, 2001.

His performance was the second-fastest in the world in 2010, and he became the first non-African to break the 27-minute barrier! He is a five-time NCAA champion and a gold medalist at the the Pan American Games. He was also the 2002 Foot Locker Cross Country champion while attending high school in Wisconsin. He won that race by 20 seconds, tying the largest margin of victory in race history.

He was also the Wisconsin HS state champion in the 3200 as a sophomore, junior and senior, breaking the state record as a junior in 8:58.39.

THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL I AM WATCHING 🙂

It was such a pleasure to meet him. He was so very nice and encouraging. His talk was amazing and he even started the Bantam Boys (my division) race the next morning.

This is an amazing video of his very first 10,000m race where he sets the American record: