David Krummenacker

By Parker Morse

Since graduating from Georgia Tech in 1998, David Krummenacker has been among the top echelon of American middle-distance runners. Among, but seldom on top; before his thousandths-of-a-second 2001 USATF Championship at 800m, he was a perennial finalist without a title. Krummenacker made the 1999 World Championship team at 1500m despite finishing ninth in the Eugene final, since he was the third athlete with the IAAF "A" standard. In 2001, he prevailed over a tightly packed 800m field at the USATF championship after also running the 1500m; in Edmonton, however, he did not advance beyond the semi-final round.

Krummenacker was a three-time ACC outdoor champion and three-time NCAA champion (twice indoor, once outdoor) at 800m while at Georgia Tech, and a 3:54 miler. At Las Cruces High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he ran a 3:58 1,500m as a senior and represented the USA in the 1994 World Junior Championships.

His outdoor 800m PR of 1:44.57 was set in 1999, but the 1,000m seems to be Krummenacker's perfect distance. He ranks fifth all-time among American athletes, and on Sunday, January 27, he set a new American indoor record of 2:17.85, lowering the previous record of 2:18.19 set by Ocky Clark in 1989. Not only did he set a record, but he won the race, upsetting Kenyan Laban Rotich, who has ranked as high as second in the world at 1,500m. Rotich went on to win the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games five days later; Krummenacker won the 800m there.

We spoke to Krummenacker after his record run, which he attributes to his new style of racing.

Did you come in here thinking you had an American Record in you?
No, I've really only been doing base training at this point in the season. The race was hard today. I didn't think it would be that fast. But sometimes you've just got to try and see what happens.

It's a pretty good start to the year, though.
This year I made a commitment to myself, that I wasn't going to run any more races, not half-heartedly, but without giving one hundred percent from the gun. In some races in the past, I'd start from the back, and kind of work my way to the front. This year I've made a commitment to myself that when I get in this sort of race [with a world-class field], I'm not going to let them go and hope they come back. It's not going to happen most of the time. If you have phenomenal speed at the end of the race, like the Russian kid, Borzakovskiy, he can do that. But us humans, most of us can't. So I said, this year, I have to get up with those guys and just hang in.

It takes that kind of determination to go after some of these races.
Oh, it really does. I guess with about 400 to go, I saw Trinity Gray was up there, and the pack was starting to separate, and I said, I've got to keep up with these guys. And then with about 150 to go, we'd gapped those guys, and it was time to make my move. I felt strong going around the curve and coming home.

So this is just the beginning of your season?
Definitely. I haven't done any speedwork up to this point at all. I talked to my manager this week, and he said, "By the way, there's a bonus for the American Record." And I said, "Well, that's all good and fine, but I haven't made any plans for that. We'll have to see what happens." And luckily, it happened.

What did you think of the fans today, and the crowd?
Ohhh, MAN. I was warming up, and I could hear the crowd out here going crazy. I thought, this track is really hot today. I think Tim Broe and Regina Jacobs, they blazed the track, and warmed it up for me.

So what's the plan for the rest of the season?
I'm going to Millrose, to run the 800 there. [He won, in 1:52.30.] Then I'll settle down for a little while. I might go to Nebraska, I'm not sure. Then the U.S. Championships is March 8th or 9th or so. Then after that I'll step back for a little while and get ready for outdoor.

Are you concentrating on the 800m for outdoors this year?
Definitely. For the last few years I've been jumping between the 1,500m and the 800m, and it's very hard to train for both of those, and run well in both of them. Some people can do it, but I've had a hard time. I'd train for the 1,500m, then add speedwork and run the 800m, and it wasn't working too well. So this year I'm focusing on the 800m, and we'll see how it goes. If all goes well, I'll stick with it next year, then eventually I'll make my way back up to the 1,500m.

What made you decide to lean on the 800m instead of the 1,500m?
I felt like I hadn't done all there is to accomplish in the 800m. I think eventually I'll be best at 1,500m, but I don't want to leave the 800m completely before I know I've achieved everything I could there. Then it will be time to move up.

In a year without a World Championships, and without an Olympics, what's there to run for?
An American record. One forty-two point six zero [set by Johnny Gray in Koblenz seventeen years ago]. It's been there for a long time. That guy is amazing. I'd like to be the kind of 800m runner Johnny Gray was, I really admire him. Too much.

But you'd toast him if you met him on the track.
Oh, yes. But I wouldn't put anything past that guy. You never know what he can do. He's been around forever, and he knows how to get to where he has to get to.

And he won at Millrose last year.
I'm telling you, I was amazed. I saw Johnny Gray run that event... I think he was forty, thirty-nine years old last year [Gray turned 40 in 2000], and still with the best guys in the U.S.

So where are you based now?
I'm training out of Tucson. I've been in Georgia, training with my coach, Alan Drosky, since I graduated. But the wintertime doesn't agree with me. It's nothing like it is up here, but...

In Georgia? Atlanta's winter doesn't agree with you?
I'm from New Mexico originally. I'm used to sixty degrees in the wintertime. In Atlanta, it's twenty-five and ice, and I'm always getting sick. One year I got bronchitis, another I strained my hamstring, so this year I went back to the Southwest. It's time to get back home to my roots. Go out here where the weather's warm, and get safe, get healthy. Everything's going great.

Do you train with other guys, or by yourself?
Mostly by myself, but I'm also working with Patrick Nduwimana. His coach is Luiz de Oliveira, the Brazilian coach. He coached Joaquim Cruz. So he's been helping out with my workouts. I still talk to my other coach before I race. It's working really well, as I saw here tonight.

Does it help you to have Patrick to train with?
Patrick and I complement each other perfectly. I'm an 800-1,500m guy, and Patrick's a 400-800m guy, so when we're out on a one-hour run, I'm like, come on Patrick, we've gotta go, we've gotta go. We haven't really started speedwork, but when that starts, he'll be pulling me on a string behind him, saying come on, man, we've gotta get this workout in. It makes a great team.

When do you set your goals for the outdoor season?
I took about a month to rest, then I put everything aside, and thought about what I wanted to do. And one of the commitments I made to myself is that I was no longer going to run any races in the back, I wasn't going to be lagging off the pace and just hoping to finish strong. If I'm going to get in these races and run against the best guys, I'm going to be there with them. And if I die, then I die, but I'm not going to walk away from the track saying, I didn't give everything. Ever again.

That should help you when you move back to the mile, with the new guys in that event who are going hard right from the gun, like Berryhill.
These guys are amazing. There's lots of young guys in the 800m, too. American distance running can't help but move up. I'm excited. I think between now and 2004 you're going to see an emergence of male distance runners in the U.S.

Who else do you see in the 800m? It's easy to rattle off the names of milers, but especially last year there haven't been any consistent faces in the 800m.
Even here today, there were some of them, like Derrick Peterson and Trinity Gray. Then there's Khadevis Robinson and Bryan Woodward's trying to get back into it. I think these guys, with a little bit of training, a little bit of commitment to get back into it, and some mental toughness, I think these guys could really be be good. It takes a little bit of time.

Parker Morse is a freelance writer in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the former Online Editor for Runner's World.

David Krummenacker on the way to an American 1,000m Record at the 2002 adidas Boston Indoor Games. (Photo: Victah@Photo Run)

En route to an 800m win over Daniel Caulfield (right) at the 2002 Millrose Games. (Photo: New York Road Runners)

Krummenacker (left) outleans Derrick Peterson (both finish in 1:47.40) to win the 2001 USATF National Championship. (Photo: Lisa Coniglio@Photo Run)

David Krummenacker Links:
USATF Bio
RunnersWorld.com Brief Chats: July 2000 | March 1999 | April 1998
Track star Krummenacker running for glory (February 1997)