David Torrence has had a heck of a lot of memorable track and field moments. Just look at the number of records he’s broken throughout his career:

2004 – World Junior Championships 1,500m American record holder – 3:43.62

2007 – Former UC Berkeley mile record holder – 3:58.62

2014 – Indoor 1,000m American record holder – 2:16.76

2014 – Indoor 4x800m relay world record holder – 7:13.11

2014 – 4x1500m relay American record holder – 14:40.80

He also ran the third fastest indoor 2,000m ever by an American at The Armory in 2014. David’s latest major accomplishment came during last week’s Pan American Championships in Toronto, Canada where he took silver in the 5k with 13:46.60. He’ll compete at the Atlanta Grand Prix on August 1 in the 1,500m against a strong field that includes Nick Symmonds and Cory Leslie. We caught up with David before his trip to Atlanta and asked him to describe some of his most memorable track and field moments.

Most Memorable High School Track and Field Moment

It was definitely during my junior year at Loyola High School (Los Angeles, California) when our cross country team won the CIF Southern Section Championship.

We were a really close team and our biggest goal for the year was to make it to states. Our school had never made it to states before, despite being over 100 years old, but to do that we had to get past the southern section, which is probably the most competitive section in the United States.

Before the event there was some trash-talking going on online with message board posts about who should be ranked what and who can beat who. We took all of the things that people were saying personally and worked our buts off.

We really put in a lot of work that summer and we just killed it at CIF. When our team was announced as the winners we were all pretty much crying tears of joy. We also won state in cross country as well, but that was just icing on the cake.

Most Memorable Collegiate Track and Field Moment

My favorite race from college came while I was a junior at UC Berkeley. It was the first time I had broken four minutes in the mile.

The first American to break four minutes was Don Bowden (3:58.70) and he was a Cal athlete. That record stood for 50 years and was also our school record.

On the event’s 50th anniversary, we had a big meet honoring Don Bowden and there was a lot leading up to it with dinners and different special events. There were three Cal athletes, myself included, that were going to try and break four minutes in the mile.

The race started with each lap being quick enough and we came to the bell at three minutes. I knew I could do it.  The announcers were playing some epic, classic song in the background during the last lap and I ended up breaking the school record (3:58.62) with Don Bowden there watching. It was pretty magical.

Most Memorable Professional Track and Field Moment

The Pan American Games were a special moment for me, but I wouldn’t say the top all time. One of my top, favorites was from my first year running professionally, in 2009, when I wasn’t sponsored.

I had a decent last college season while dealing with injuries, but not good enough to get me a contract. I was kind of distraught about that, but I worked part time and trained as much as I could. I had to be really frugal and make as much prize money as possible.

I won the US Indoor Championships 3k, which got me some cash, but by May that was starting to dwindle. At that time the first ever USATF Road Mile Championships were announced and it offered some really good prize money. It was $4,000 if you won the race and an additional $10,000 if you broke four minutes. I remember thinking I really needed to win that race.

This guy named John Rankin took it out super fast. He had a really big lead on me and I thought the money was gone, but I could at least get second or third. So I tried to stay relaxed and with about 200 to go I noticed that John was coming back to me. At one of the last turns on the course, John went wide for some reason and I just cut the tangent. I don’t think he saw me and I just blasted by him and sprinted home. I ended up wining the race and barely breaking four minutes (3:59.7). I was ecstatic. I could not be happier with that race.