Chris Solinsky new assistant coach!!

Chris Solinsky has been relatively quiet in 2012. The broad shouldered American battled his way through injuries that required him to miss the Olympic Trials and is currently on a slow road to recover following a surgery to his hamstring. He announced recently via twitter that his first race back will be the Falmouth Road Race, a 7.1 mile jaunt up the Massachusetts coastline this coming weekend; the running community rejoiced.

Today, the running community has more to rejoice--particularly those located in the Pacific Northwest--as Jonathan Marcus, an assistant coach at the University of Portland, posted a picture of Solinsky donning Portland Pilots gear with the caption "A big Pilot welcome to new University of Portland Asst. XC and T&F coach Chris Solinsky!"

The new career seems like the right one, as doing nothing but train, think about training, and train some more can be taxing. Much like Alan Webb was forced to pick up piano, Solinsky taking on the new career can only be a good thing for the psyche of former American Record holder.

And notch one in the victory category for University of Portland. Imagine being an athlete--a Portland Pilot, if you will--coming down to the last few reps in an interval session. You're really starting to grind, hoping your coach calls the workout, then, out of nowhere, a man who would hold his own against Sylvester Stallone in an arm wrestling match starts screaming "you think you know pain? I'm the first white man to break 27 minutes in the 10k! I'll show you pain!" as he rips off his shirt and you finish having run the workout of a lifetime.

pilotram wrote:
Dunno if he can coach, but he'll be a great training partner for the guys!

Solinsky plans to enter some fall events, perhaps the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod in August. A longer-term goal is to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Moscow next summer. “At this time next year, I’m going to be back to where I was,” Solinsky said. “I want to get out there and make it tough on people. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most — making people hurt.”

Former American Record Holder in the 10,000m Joins Pilot Coaching Staff

PORTLAND, Ore. --- Already two of the premiere programs in the nation, the Portland Pilots men’s and women’s cross country/track and field programs bolstered their coaching staff on Friday with the addition of Chris Solinsky, a three-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year and the 2007 USTFCCCA National Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.

"We are obviously tremendously excited to have Chris joining our staff,” Portland head coach Rob Conner said of his new assistant coach. “We are always trying to raise the bar with our program and Chris will help us do that on a daily basis as very few people in the US have had the running experiences he has had."

Solinsky, who races professionally and will continue to do so while coaching the Pilots, became the first non-African runner to finish below the 27-minute barrier in the 10,000m event in 2010. Racing in the event for the first time in his career, Solinsky clocked a 26:59.60 to win the race at the prestigious Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitation while breaking the previous American record of 27:13.98.

During his college career, Solinksy captured five NCAA individual championships, winning the outdoor 5000m championships twice in 2006 and 2007, the indoor 5000m championships in 2007, and the indoor 3000m titles in 2005 and 2006.

Solinksy was the USA Outdoor Championships runner-up in the 5000m in 2009 (13:20.82) and 2011 (12:25.65). He also placed second at the 2008 USA Indoor Championships in the 3000m event with a time of 8:03.80.

Solinsky owns sub 4-minute personal records in the 1500m and mile events at 3:35.89 and 3:54.1, respectively.

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will resume the 2012 season with the WCC Preview on September 15, a home meet at Fernhill Park.