Interview with Steve Sundell

By Pat Goodwin

Steve Sundell was last interviewed by mensracing.com in the fall of 2003, and the Columbia University track and cross country star was at the top of his game. While at Columbia, he was a six-time Ivy League champion, including the Ivy league Heps Cross Country champion. He was also a two-time All American in track and cross country. Sundell graduated in 2004 with a double major in environmental studies and history.

Prior to his collegiate career, Sundell—who was born in New Jersey and lived in the East until his father took a job in North Dakota—played soccer and ran track during high school at Fargo South. It wasn't until his senior year that he traded in his soccer cleats for cross country spikes. As a senior, he finished second (to Andrew Carlson) at the state high school cross country championship in North Dakota and won the 1600 and 3200 on the track. In high school he had a best of 4:20 in the 1600 and 9:22 in the 3200.

Now 25, Sundell lives in Redwood City, CA, and works at Stanford University. At the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston on January 13, he finished third in a personal best time of 1:03:21. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon in New York City on November 3, he improved his marathon time from 2:21:03 to 2:16:54, finishing 15th in the race. He had qualified for the marathon Trials during his first marathon in an unexpected way. He started the Napa Valley Marathon as one of three officially designated pacemakers and ended up winning with a qualifying time just under the 2:22 "B" standard.

Sundell's other personal bests include 13:50 in the 5000 and 28:28 in the 10,000. He is coached by Willy Wood, who was his coach at Columbia, and he runs for the New York Athletic Club.

New York Road Runners: First of all, congrats on your third-place finish at the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston. Your previous best in the half marathon was 1:05:20 (recorded when he won the Big Sur Half-Marathon in 2005) so your 1:03:21 was a nice improvement. You appeared to run a very smart race and moved up to your third place. How did the race unfold for you?

Steve Sundell: Thanks, I appreciate it. It was a fun weekend and the whole event was extremely well managed. Most of the first two miles or so were directly into a stiff wind, which pushed everyone into a line until we got into the neighborhoods. When the race settled, the front pack was James Carney, Jason Lehmkuhle, and Ryan Kirkpatrick, with Dan Browne and I leading the chase pack about 10 yards back. At about halfway, the front three started to spread out, and I took over third around mile 10.

NYRR: Did you run what you expected at Houston?

SS: I thought that kind of performance would be in the area of a top-five finish, but top-three was nice. It's been a while since I've run a half-marathon, so I knew I couldn't really expect anything specific. I wanted to see how the race would sort itself out and not get in over my head early on. A few little small changes over such a long race can make too much of a difference to "expect" a certain finish, but all in all the pace felt comfortable, I'm happy with it, and I think there's room for improvement too.

NYRR: What did you think of the competition in the race? James and Jason got out in front, but you looked like you were running with a good pack. When did the group start to string out a bit? And also I think some runners were coming back to you like Ryan Kirkpatrick—is that correct?

SS: Yeah, the front group was stretching out and I was able to catch one guy [Ryan Kirkpatrick] just after the turnaround point. It was difficult to tell the positions of a number of other guys until I made that big turn at about mile 8.5 and could see everything directly. James and Jason looked really strong right from the start.

NYRR: You seem to have recovered well from the marathon Trials in November where you finished 15th and ran a personal best 2:16:54. How did the marathon Trials go for you? Can you describe your experience at New York? Was it a good fall of training, and did you feel well prepared for your second-ever marathon?

SS: Since I qualified in an unconventional way, I went into the Trials basically to race a marathon for the first time. I wasn't sure about my training progress over the summer, and my tune-up races didn’t really give me a good idea of what to expect. I restrained myself over the first half and kept reminding myself over and over to stay patient. I picked up the pace at halfway and slowly caught people the rest of the race. What struck me most about it was how I had to basically redefine my idea of "patience" in a race. It's one thing to sit for eight laps and make a move. It's very different to do that for 13 miles. Having gone to school in New York, I've run in Central Park so many times that I knew where every hill and turn was. It never really concerned me. Between the surprising Columbia crowd and all the people cheering for NYAC, there were people at almost every point in the race. The experience was great, like it was my hometown.

NYRR: In high school, you ran track for four years and played soccer in the fall except for one year of cross country. Are you surprised that you are running the really long distances already? Does the longer distance seem to suit you?

SS: I definitely didn't think I'd be running any marathons by now, not until I was a little older at least. But the longer distances seem to be comfortable for me and I've recovered from them pretty quickly. I have my sights set on the track this spring, though, and that will be what I'm training for through June.

NYRR: Were you a teammate of Andrew Carlson [of Team USA Minnesota] at Fargo South? Did you race against each other in the track meets? Your cross country team must have been pretty strong—did the team win state when you were a senior?

SS: Yeah, we were the same class year. I only ran cross country for one year, but we had a really strong team. Andrew won the state title that year and I came in second, but our team as a whole struggled at the state meet and we won by only one point. It's been fun to track our mutual progress since high school, even under different training programs. I keep in touch with him on a regular basis and it's great to see his well-deserved success.

NYRR: At Columbia, you were a two-time All American and also a six-time Ivy League champion. Tell us a little about your collegiate running career—what were some of the highlights, what do you remember most about your experience at Columbia?

SS: Right from the start, the training at Columbia clicked with me. It went much better than I expected when I first arrived. What took getting used to was how much intensity surrounded Heps races. Regional meets were almost a letdown in comparison. It took me about two years to come to the point where I could place the individual importance of the late-season races in the proper order. Still, they were great experiences and it wasn't until after I graduated that I discovered it was something almost unique to the Ivy League.

NYRR: Willy Wood from Columbia is still your coach. How does that work when you are out in California? Does he know you so well from when you ran for him that the long distance between you doesn't matter?

SS: Yeah he's back coaching me again. I was coach-less for a while, so he volunteered after I had asked him for some advice. He sends me my training schedules by e-mail and we stay in contact as much as possible. He'll fine-tune and change things up based on feedback. The downside is that he can't directly observe the workouts, but it still has worked really well over this past year and I have no problems with training by myself. There's a level of trust that seems to be the framework behind it.

NYRR: Your double major was environmental studies and history. Are you working in this field or are you in graduate school in California? Can you describe what you are doing?

SS: No, I'm not doing anything related to those. I work as a client manager in the Office of Development at Stanford. It's been a great place to work and the office environment has been really supportive of my running. Neither work nor training interferes with each other and it all provides a nice balance.

NYRR: Do you have training partners in Redwood City, or do you run primarily by yourself? Have you thought about joining one of the training centers?

SS: I train almost totally by myself. There have been a few exceptions. There is a good group of marathoners out here I've done a few workouts with, but most workouts or runs are solo. Sometimes I have to struggle on windy workout days and some tempo runs, but there's also something I kind of like about being out on a track all by myself. Last summer, I had been talking with Paul Mascali [the New York Athletic Club coach] for a good portion of the summer and I was given the opportunity to join the New York Athletic Club. It's a great situation for me to be in and there are a lot of really talented guys on the team. Three NYAC guys finished in the top seven in Houston at the USA Championships. It's an organization I'm glad to be a part of.

NYRR: What are your plans for 2008? Will you be running the 10,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene? And before that will you be running at the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego? Will you be doing both roads and track this spring?

SS: Since I spent so much time with the long-distance road races, I didn't think it would wise to drop straight into something like an indoor race, so ideally I'd like to transition slowly to shorter and faster track events over the next few months. I'll be racing a few 10Ks and 5Ks this spring and I'll see where my times put me. I'm thinking about racing in the USA Cross Country Championships, but I’m not certain. Based on what happened last year, I don't feel like I can count anything out regarding the roads or track this spring.

NYRR: Were you injured for a while after graduation from Columbia? If so, what was your injury and how did you get through it? Or, did you just take a break for while?

SS: No, I'm afraid I wasn't injured at all, just underachieving. I showed some signs of life since last spring and now I'm really looking forward to the next few months.

NYRR: You've been steadily improving running road races in California. How many miles a week do you usually run and where do you run? What's a typical week of training?

SS: My average mileage hovers around 125 miles a week. Since I work on campus, I run in and around there a lot, but there are plenty of hilly trails all over the area. It mostly depends on the time of the year and whether or not I have enough daylight. I've been fortunate enough to not be prone to overuse injuries so I have no issues with two-hour runs on pavement if I have to.

NYRR: Where do you see yourself over the next few years—do you plan to keep running? Do you have any long-term goals?

SS: One of the blessings about my working/running situation is that I don't feel like there's a closing window of opportunity where I have to get a certain performance by a certain time or move on. For me, work and running mutually benefit from each other. I can't rule anything out, but I'm in a good situation right now.

Interview conducted January 16, 2008, and posted January 22, 2008.