Chris Thompson, 30, of Great Britain, was seventh in the NYC Half last Sunday in 1:01:23. Thompson won the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5K in November in 13:52. Thompson, who competes for the Oregon Track Club and is coached by Mark Rowland, was the silver medalist for 10,000 meters at the 2010 European Championships. His best for the 10,000 is 27:27.36. Sunday’s race was his first half-marathon. This is one of our briefest recent Brief Chats--they used to be really brief back in the 20th century--but we did want to share the few minutes of conversation we had with Thompson in New York on Friday.

That was quite a field for the Dash to the Finish Line 5K you won in November. Was that win a bit of a shock?
Chris Thompson: It was when you look at the start sheet...