Ben Blankenship is having a stellar 2015 season, but he isn’t showing it off the track.
The mellow, soft-spoken runner with a burly beard and wild hair, who runs for Nike Oregon Track Club Elite, was pretty calm after winning arguably one of the more significant races of his life.
The 25 year-old out-sprinted Kenyans Jonathan Kiplimo Sawe and Timothy Cheruiyot, breaking the ribbon in 3 minutes, 55.72 seconds. Sawe finished in 3:55.76, and Cheruiyot in 3:55.80.
“Yeah, it was good,” Blankenship said. “A bit slow, kicked at the end, hoped to win it — and I did.”
Blankenship said that since this race was slower, it was a bit easier.
“When it goes out in 60, how can you not find yourself out in the front, you know?” he said.
He said the recent race in the Bahamas on May 4 ranks higher in significance. During that race, Blankenship and his fellow U.S. teammates set a world record in the distance medley relay, finishing in 9:15.50. Blankenship ran the anchor leg and finished strong.
He did it again Saturday afternoon. As Blankenship rounded around the Bowerman Curve, he looked over his shoulder and then took off for the finish.
“I was hoping to make one last charge at it,” he said. “Somebody great one time told me that you’ve got to be able to just watch some people’s body language sometimes, and today I was able to execute it.”
Blankenship hopes to continue this success through June and U.S. nationals at Hayward. Today, he earned the second fastest time in the mile so far in this outdoor season. The Bowerman Mile winner, Ayanleh Souleiman, ran the fastest mile, 3:51.10.
Blankenship said although he wasn’t in the start list for the Bowerman Mile, he was executing the same plan and wanted to be competitive and go for the win.
“It was good to race against some Americans and put my name up front,” he said.
