The conditions were perfect on Friday night, May 30, 2014 at Hayward Field. With a crowd anxious to see Galen Rupp run twenty-five laps. Ten thousand meters, the classic long distance race on the track. For Galen Rupp, this was the race where he showed his unique ability.
Galen Rupp does not jump around the field, as his training partner, Mo Farah is known to do. No, Galen Rupp moves up through the crowd, and was in Eugene, Oregon to run a very, very fast 10,000 meters, and most of all, make a statement about his fitness and his place in American distance running.
Rupp moved through the crowd, and by 1600 meters to go, Galen Rupp was matching every move. With about nine hundred meters to go, running inside himself, Galen Rupp took the lead and never looked back. Running the penultimate lap in 59 seconds, Galen Rupp put it in high gear with 300 meters to go and finished in 26:44.36, a new American record.
Kevin Mangan, RunBlogRun’s intern and eyes at the race put it this way: “Galen Rupp ran an eight kilometer tempo run and raced for the final two thousand meters.”
Galen Rupp told reporters that night: “Honestly, I wasn’t looking at a time until a quarter of a mile to go. Other than that, I was just worried about competing.”
Shoe Addict prepared this video for our RunBlogRun American Athlete of the Month for May 2014. We look forward to seeing Galen race the 5,000m and 10,000m in Sacramento at the US Champs and wish Galen and his wife, Keara, the very best as they await the birth of their twins.
Congrats to Galen Rupp on a race well run, and his new American record, the fastest 10,000m time in the world for 2014!
