Out of the Ashes the Phoenix Shall Rise: Paul Chelimo

For someone of Paul Chelimo's pedigree 2022 was a bad year, some might have said the beginning of the end. Afterall Father Time is undefeated. But alas, the weekend before last Chelimo displayed he is still a force to be reckon with. Having raced at the Night of the 10,000m PBs, Chelimo put the world on notice by running 27:12. Although this performance was just outside the World Championship standard of 27:10, he set a personal best as well as the meet record. More importantly, he put to rest the demons of the past year and post race displayed some of the swagger characteristic of the three time medalist.

This performance is significant for a few reasons. First and foremost it showed that Chelimo is still competitive on the world stage. His 27:12 is currently ranked 5th in the world for the year. Second, this was Chelimo's first track race of the year. For someone to make their season debut on the track in such a dominant fashion means that they've set themselves up well for the year ahead (think Chris Solinsky circa 2010). Third, Chelimo ran the second half of this race solo. Currently, Woody Kincaid and Joe Klecker are the only Americans ranked ahead of Chelimo for the 10,000m. Their performances came at the tail end of an indoor season where they ran 12:51 and 12:54, respectively, they had pacers for the majority of the race and when the pacers had all stepped off the track they had each other to keep the pace honest. End of season, peak shape for them, is Paul Chelimo's starting off point.

Chelimo spent this winter training for the Berlin Half Marathon, and although his performance there didn't reflect the strength gains made over the winter, they're on display now and will carry him throughout the summer season. We should all take a page from Chelimo's playbook. Afterall, you've got to temper the steel before you put an edge on it.