Chris Solinsky is breaking records without conventional runner's build
Tim Layden

Earlier this month I spent a couple days in Oregon reporting a story for Sports Illustrated on U.S. distance runner Chris Solinsky, who has had a brilliant spring, crushing the American 10,000-meter record and also becoming the just the fifth U.S. runner to break 13 minutes in the 5,000 meters. Because of the magazine's space limitations, the Solinsky story appears only as an "Inside Track'' column. This is a longer version of that story. Think of it as the director's cut.

BEAVERTON, Oregon -- At this moment, Matt Tegenkamp would prefer not to talk. "I'll be doing a lot better right after this,'' he says, nodding toward the track that sits in the middle of the Nike business campus in suburban Portland. (And in the middle of the track is: A mature forest; you cannot see the 200-meter mark from the finish line. Half expect to see Hansel and Gretel wander out at any point). "This'' is a series of 16 400-meter repetitions of 62 or 63 seconds, each with just 100-meter jog recoveries. It is essentially an agonizing five-mile tempo run, which leaves Tegenkamp in the moment of dread that any competitive runner can appreciate.

Standing nearby is Chris Solinsky. Like Tegenkamp, Solinsky is part of the Nike Oregon Project, the eight-year-old training program conceived by former marathon great Alberto Salazar, which now includes a dozen world-class runners training in two groups under two coaches (Salazar and Jerry Schumacher, who trains Solinsky and Tegenkamp). Unlike Tegenkamp, Solinsky is not running the workout, because he just raced 5,000 meters in Oslo four days earlier.