Socialing the Distance, Featuring Cooper Lutkenhaus, Episode 135, World Under 18 Record, 800 meters, American Under 20 record, 800 meters!

RunBlogRun presents:

Socialing the Distance,

NIKE presents #TheJourneytoCompete, A NIKE Cross Country newsletter, celebrating cross-country, Issues, 1-15, Back Issues, Winter 2026

2026 Winter Middle Distance Training (800m-5,000m), Wednesday January 21, 2026, Week 3, Day 3, the third week of Winter running, with an easy day on Wednesday!

#CoffeeWithLarry, Episode 838, January 19, 2026, More on the 2026 NB Indoor GP!

Episode 135,

Featuring Cooper Lutkenhaus,

World U18 Best, American U20 Best, 800 meters,

Nike sponsored athlete

Cooper Lutkenhaus had a pretty extraordinary year in 2025. First, he breaks the American Junior record for the Men’s 800 meters, then he breaks the World Under 18 record and American U 20 record!

When RunBlogRun spoke with Cooper on Monday, October 27, Cooper had just completed his first day of two-a-day workouts! He was tired.

We spoke for about 45 minutes, and Cooper was quite relaxed and thoughtful. He had just been named Track & Field News’ High School Boys’ athlete of the year for 2025. He had just finished a two-week break after going to Tokyo for the World Outdoor Championships.

Cooper Lutkenhaus, USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships
Eugene, Oregon, USA
July 31 – August 3, 2025, photo by Kevin Morris

Cooper’s second place finish in the US champs put him on the US team for Tokyo and set World U 18 and American U 20 record on his brilliant run in Eugene, Oregon. Cooper’s 1:42:27 surprised the world! We hope that you enjoy this interview! Cooper Lutkenhaus was a lot of fun: thoughtful and prone to analysis, Cooper Lutkenhaus wants to enjoy his winter training with his high school team mates, who he works out with, but does not race with, as he is now a professional runner with NIKE.

Thanks to Cooper’s father, George and Cooper for their patience with my interview!

Find all of our Socialing The Distance interview series here: https://bit.ly/34czL0e

Find all of our Athletics Chat episodes here: https://bit.ly/2GkVoDD

Find all of our Conversations with Larry here: https://bit.ly/30io2vY

#SocialingTheDistance #RunBlogRun #theshoeaddict

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Special thanks to Mike Deering, original member of The Shoe Addicts, who edits, clips, manages and produces the podcast for Fortius Media Group, LLC and RunBlogRun.com.

Special thanks to Cooper Lutkenhaus for his thoughtful interview and NIKE sports marketing for their kind support.

To learn more about NIKE Running, please go to www.nikerunning.com We highly recommend the NIKE Vomero Premium !

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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