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Chris Solinsky, 22, whose dominant 5000-meter victory in Indianapolis on June 6 gave him his fifth NCAA championship and capped a great career at the University of Wisconsin, finished seventh in the USA Outdoor Championships 5000 on June 22; his training partner, Wisconsin alum Matt Tegenkamp, finished second and made the U.S. team that will compete in the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, this August. Solinsky will begin a career as a professional runner and remain part of his current training group, which includes Tegenkamp, Simon Bairu, and Stanford graduate Jonathon Riley, in Madison under coach Jerry Schumacher. He talked with MensRacing the day before leaving for his first-ever European tour.
MensRacing.com:
You’re probably not too pleased with your result at Nationals, but if seventh in the country at 22 years old is a bad race, I’d say you’re doing all right.
Chris Solinsky: I was pretty ticked off at first. But looking at it now, okay, I was nine seconds behind the winner, eight seconds away from qualifying, on a bad day. I’ll get over it.
MR: What was the race like? That slow first mile seemed like it played into Lagat’s hands.
CS: Before the race, people seemed to think that Matt Tegenkamp and I were going to push the pace. But we were confident that we could kick, too, and we stayed back with the group. I should’ve been licking my chops about that slow pace, but I just never felt great—I wasn’t fluid; I didn’t have that “pop.” The 4:30 pace kind of felt like 4:20.
MR: Could a long season of big races be part of the reason?
CS: I don’t like to make excuses. That might have been part of it, but I think I was just a little flat that day; I’d been feeling like that for about two weeks. It’s hard to say exactly why.
MR: Maybe the aftermath of the NCAAs?
CS: No, I knew all along that I’d be coming back for the U.S. meet this year, and I prepared for that. Last year the NCAA meet was the big focus—we tapered completely for it, and then the attitude was just to use whatever was left at Nationals. This year—well, we didn’t train through the NCAA meet, but we didn’t train down nearly as much.
MR: You’re really not going to make excuses. What’s a typical week of mileage for you in the mid-season?
CS: We ran less this year; I actually ran 120 to 140 miles a week for about six weeks last year, which was probably too much—I think I got sick because of it. This year I got up to 100, but it was usually more like 70 to 85 miles.
MR: That seems completely reasonable for 5K training.
CS: I’m trying to work on my finish now. I’ll be running a lot of 1500s, working on that last gear. If I can cover moves in a 1500, I should have the speed to finish a 5000 off a fast pace.
MR: How’d you feel after winning the NCAA 5000?
CS: Great. It was the perfect ending for my last season [in college]. Well, there was one thing that could’ve been better: I wish Galen Rupp had been in the race. I was looking forward to that rematch. [Rupp edged Solinsky by five hundredths of a second in the Oregon Invitational 5000 on April 20.]
MR: Well, [Shadrack] Songok outkicked him for you in the 10K. So how’d your race go?
CS: We went out at 4:20, came by 3K at 8:12, and I felt good. I waited ’til about 1100 to go and made a move—I didn’t want to leave it until later. I mean, my kick’s okay, but you can control a race better if you’re ready to make a move earlier.
MR: You have more options, right? You don’t have to hope the race goes a certain way.
CS: Right. I don’t like to leave it up in the air.
MR: So now that the Nationals are over, what are you looking ahead to?
CS:
I’m going to Europe tomorrow—I’ll be running three meets there.
MR: Really? And here I was thinking you’d just had a long season and would want to take a rest.
CS: No, I’m feeling good. My workouts since the race have gone well.
MR: What workouts? Your race was about two days ago!
CS: Well, one real workout. But it felt good.
MR: So what races will you run in Europe?
CS: We’ll be staying in London, and the first race is in Malmo, Sweden, on July 2nd. Then the Heusden 5000 [in The Netherlands]—maybe I can take care of the 5K standard there. And then I’m hoping to do a 3000 in Stockholm—I think it’s on August 7th.
MR: Have you done a tour like this before?
CS: This will be my first time in Europe—actually, it’ll be my first time out of the country.
MR: Oh, man, you’re going to have a great time.
CS: I’m really looking forward to the races. A lot of Americans used to think, “Well, I’ll go to Europe and get my butt kicked, but I’ll try to hang on and hope I get pulled to some fast times.” I’m not one to say that. If I’m in a race and I think the thing to do is push the pace, I’ll take the lead. I can’t be afraid of anyone over there.
MR: You sound a bit like Craig Mottram, but without mentioning your [Mottram’s now-famous reference to male anatomy omitted here].
CS: [Laughing]: Yeah, my friends are telling me I should start saying things like that so I’ll get more press coverage. But Mottram has the right idea. We can’t think the East Africans are unbeatable. There’s been a real change in U.S. distance runners’ thinking lately. They see what people like Matt [Tegenkamp] are doing. A lot more of us are starting to think that way.
MR: We’ve got some good post-college training groups together now; that seems to be working.
CS: Our group’s getting bigger, too. Jonathon Riley started training with us, and a couple other good guys. It really helps. Having a group to train with makes running hard easier.
MR: Very well put. What’s it like to find yourself at this level, going off to Europe for the first time to run in those world-class meets?
CS: I just want to race! I don’t want to put limits on what I can do—I’m trying to stay naïve about it. You know, if you keep working, you just get stronger. When I ran 8:45 for two miles in high school it was hard, and now I come by that on the way to a 5000. I think it’s the same with going to Europe or anyplace else. If you don’t limit yourself, you can keep improving. American distance runners used to handicap themselves; they thought the level the Africans were at was unreachable. I think that’s foolish. I’m not ruling anything out.
Interview conducted June 26, 2007, and posted June 29, 2007.
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