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Ryan Hill carrying a chip on his shoulder into Millrose two mile

By Tony Casey

February 8, 2017

There’s nothing wrong with a little fire in your belly, a bee in your bonnet and a little extra pep in your step to get you to the finish line quicker, right?

That’s how reigning IAAF World Indoor Championship 3,000-meter silver medalist Ryan Hill, a member of the Bowerman Track Club, is tackling this weekend’s Paavo Nurmi Two Mile after a 2016 filled with many ups and a down. Along with the storied Wanamaker Mile this year, the two mile is one of the marquee events of the 110th New York Road Runners Millrose Games at The Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center.

Most notably, the Portland-based 27-year-old faces the likes of reigning Olympic 1,500-meter champion — and middle distance leader of the rivaled Nike Oregon Project — Matthew Centrowitz, who’s coming up in distance to Hill’s wheelhouse from the mile.

Other guests invited to this party will be Hill’s Bowerman Track Club teammate and Olympian Mo Ahmed — whom Hill said has “attacking workouts” recently during their altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona — Ben True, and Olympians Ben Blankenship, Hassan Mead and Donn Cabral.

The question remains: will this race turn into a championship-style sit-n-kick effort, or one where the American record of 8:07:41 by the Nike Oregon Project’s Galen Rupp from 2014 falls.

Hill got his 3,000-meter personal-best down to 7:30.93 last August in Paris. Depending on which conversion you like most, in the right race, he has the fitness to bust Rupp’s American record by at least a few seconds. He currently carries with him a personal-best two-mile time of 8:26:72 from the 2015 USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships in Boston, which he won.

It might come down to the information Hill and his peers get from the pacers in the final hours before the gun goes off to see if a record attempt is in the cards.

“Those things are all still developing, so I can’t give you any exact predictions,” he said. “But I know I’m coming in good shape and I’m going to give it my best effort.”

“I feel like I’ve always got that 7:35 or below in my legs,” he said. “I know the two-mile record being 8:07, that’s very attainable for a lot of guys in the field. I think there are multiple people that could do that, but you never know how the race plays out. People want to win, also. It’s kind of hard to put yourself out there and pace others to a good time. So, if we all got out there and start looking at each other and it doesn’t go that fast, it wouldn’t surprise me either.”

This year, Hill has a lot to prove as he tries to put missing the 2016 Olympic team behind him. The Olympic year almost couldn’t have started off better for Hill, who rocketed from a detached fifth-place position with 200 meters to go to a silver medal in that 3,000-meter World Indoor Championship final.

With so much momentum on his side, Hill was a clear favorite to make the U.S. Olympic team in the 5,000 in June, but he didn’t have the same kind of kick he employed indoors and finished sixth overall.

Hill admits he might have taken his foot off the gas a bit in getting ready for the U.S. Championships. He vows not to make that mistake again in 2017.

“All the focus is on the U.S. Championships,” Hill said. “And hopefully, the month leading into the U.S. Championships, I’m also fit, because I learned last year that’s huge. You can’t just turn it on for the U.S. Championships and expect to make the team. You’ve got to be healthy, month after month, and strong for many weeks leading in. I just want to be really consistent and have no problems coming off of indoors and be my best athlete at U.S. championships.”

Looking past this weekend, Hill said something’s brewing at the Feb. 26 Boston University Indoor Last Chance Meet, but he didn’t have the details ironed out just yet. After that, Hill’s not going to miss the chance to defend his U.S. title at the 2017 USATF Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 4, where they’ll also be running at two mile.

Tony Casey

Tony tells us he’s a charismatic upstate New York native now living in East Tennessee. He works as a full-time general assignment reporter for the Johnson City Press. Along with authoring a regional craft beer book last year, Tony’s biggest accomplishments include his current six-plus year running streak and recently lowering his 5,000-meter personal-best in his early 30’s. @TonyCaseyJCP