Q&A with Chris Solinsky

On May 1, in Palo Alto, California, the American 10,000-meter record was broken—but not by the guy most people expected to do it.

June 21, 2010

How do you feel about people saying that you're the first American under 27 minutes and the first non-African?
It's pretty cool. The way I've always approached it is that you're just competing against somebody else who's just that much better. Even in the NCAA, I heard a lot of people criticize the fact that there were a lot of Kenyan athletes and foreign athletes altogether kind of stealing the glory from the Americans. But I actually thought that was better for the sport because it elevated our game. I definitely wouldn't have trained as hard if it weren't for the foreign athletes coming in and kicking our butt. I always think it's an even playing ground no matter where you're from or what your background is.

You said 26:59 blows you away, and I don't mean to diminish what you've just accomplished, but do you ever think, "Oh my god, Kenenisa Bekele has run 26:17." Does it scare you how much faster the world record is than what you just did?
I wouldn't say it scares me. It motivates me to keep pushing hard. This may sound bad but I've already kind of moved past the race, because for us it was definitely not the focus for the year. Jerry [Schumacher, his coach] and I already talked and he's actually ticked about how the race went. He's like "If you would have spread that 1:56 [last 800 meters] out over the last 6 laps instead of the last two, we could be looking at a 26:45 not a 26:59." So he's already put everything in perspective and brought me back down to earth. And I think that's reasonable. I'm not saying I'm going to go set up a race to try to do it, but hopefully we get the opportunity to be in a race that fast down the road and try to be competitive.

Well it was your first 10,000 so you can't be knocked for trying to hang back a little bit.
Well I definitely don't think the time is going to last. Whether it's me who breaks it or Dathan [Ritzenhein] or Galen...

You don't think it's going to last how long? Through the summer?
It may last this year because there's not too many more big 10Ks, but I say give it five years and it will definitely be broken. There's a number of individuals who can take a crack at it and lower it significantly. I just hope to be one of the people who is able to lower it.

So who are these individuals?
Matt Tegenkamp when he gets up to the 10,000. If Bernard Lagat ever wants to do it, he's got the talent. You look at somebody like Abdi [Abdirahman] who could come back to the track and definitely do it, same with Meb. He still thinks his best running is ahead of him and I believe that. And if someone like Ryan Hall decides to do some speedwork and jump back on the track, he's definitely got the talent to do it. I'm sure there's plenty of guys I'm leaving out, and there's a lot of young guys coming up who have the talent to take a crack at it.

I was surprised to learn that you've been doing weeks over 100 miles. You said in the Flotrack interview that you're not a 10K guy, just a 5K guy who's dabbling, but you sound like a marathon guy. Is everyone in your group doing that sort of volume or is it only you because you consider yourself a strength runner?
There's lots of guys that are doing high mileage, but it's not for everyone. I'm definitely a durable guy. We joked last year even that Simon and Tim [Nelson], they're 10,000-meter runners on their way to moving up to the marathon, and I was doing just as much if more miles than them certain weeks and they're like "you're a 5K guy, you shouldn't even be doing this." But I'm a very strength-oriented runner and I always have been and I probably always will be. Matt said to me on a run today, "just think of it, you've done a few 120-mile weeks, where are you going to go from here? How much higher do you think you can go?" I don't know. Obviously I've got to get to a point where 120 miles can feel comfortable first.

You said Stanford wasn't the target race for this season. You're going to Oslo to run a 5000 [at the Bislett Games on June 4, Solinsky ran 12:56.66. Bernard Lagat set a new American record in 12:54.12], you're running the 1500 at Nationals, and then the 5000 at the Prefontaine Classic on July 3. You said you don't race to chase times, you just want to win, but yet you've also said that you do want to chase the American record at Prefontaine in the 5K.
That kind of got mis...

OK that got mis-quoted? You said you want to go sub-13 on American soil, and is it perhaps that you think it might take an American record to win that race?
Yes. I think, obviously, anything can happen on the day. But, the time goals that I have are just kind of like in the back of my head. When we step to the line it's like "OK, what do we need to do to be in the front of this race when it's over. And a lot of times, especially if someone like Bekele is in the 5000 at Prefontaine like we've heard he is, obviously it could be a 13-oh race but it has the potential to be a sub-13 race and, if that's the case, I want to put myself in the position to be at the front, and if I'm at the front, then hopefully it's a fast race.

Just to be super clear, you're going to win but you think it could be fast and if it's fast, you do have in the back of your head the American record.
Correct. We just want to get ourselves in the fitness to be able to run...we want to be fit enough to be able to run what the American record is. And so we're doing whatever we can to be that fit. But obviously the race is dictated every which way and if we don't get the American record that day, it's not like we're going to be ticked off. If we finish a few steps behind Bekele, we're not going to be ticked off because it's 13:10. But if everything goes perfectly, you know how I said this weekend "26:55 or 28:00," and we hope we're fit enough to run the American record or at least sub-13.

I'm noticing that you're saying "we" a lot. Are you referring to you and your coach or you and your teammates? It sounds like this is very much a team mentality.
I would say we're a pretty close-knit bunch of guys, even throw Shalane in there. The stuff we do we kind of try to do together. Matt has already proven that he's a sub-13 guy [he ran 12:58.56 in September 2009] and Evan [Jager] is a young guy who definitely has the ability to get under 13. So when I say "we" it's encompassing all the athletes and Jerry as well.