Chris Solinsky of Stevens Point Wisconsin and former U of Wisconsin Badger became the first American in history to break 27 minutes for 10,000 meters, smashing the American record by 14 seconds at the Peyton Jordan Invitational Track meet at Stanford University (results).
Solinsky, normally a 5K runner that missed our 2008 Olympic Team (5th in the trials), said after the race he's been training with guys preparing for the New York Marathon- putting in plenty of hard, long distance threshold runs. After averaging 4:40 per mile on one particular 8 mile effort, Schumacher decided to enter him in the 10K instead of the 5. I believe this is Solinsky's first attempt at 10K on the track, and to set the American record is phenomenal.
Also in the race and receiving most of the pre race hype was Galen Rupp, a Nike teammate of Solinsky who is coached by Alberto Salazar (Solinksy is coached by Jerry Schumacher). Rupp finished 4th in 27:10 after hold the lead for several laps.
I don't know Galen, and I met Chris once (his high school cross country coach, Donn Behnke, was a teammate of mine at UW-Stevens Point).
I'll go out on a limb and say there is a bit of a rivalry between the two, and Chris has no trouble getting psyched to run hard against Galen Rupp.
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