Get your morning started with a kick that would make you choke on that coffee that you’re drinking. Centro? Leonard Korir? Hicham El Guerrouj? Nah, it was Elliott Heath. Elliott woke up the crowd during the 2011 Men’s 3000m race with a scintillating last 200 meters.

At the time, we didn’t know that there were four future Olympians in the field. Factor in a few tired legs from the 5000m race the night before and the men’s 3000m final in 2011 was sure to put on a show.

A beardless Ben Blankenship, Matthew Centrowitz, Lenny Korir, Sam Chelanga, Lawi Lalang and Tom Farrell were among those on the start list. It was a race that was bound to be exciting and one that couldn’t be easily predicted.

The previous night, Korir held off Sam Chelanga and Diego Estrada to win the 5,000m national title. He was one of the studs to watch. But that 3k/5k double isn’t always the easiest to pull off (unless you’re Edward Cheserek). The race got underway, German Fernandez DNF’d in the first few meters and the pace wasn’t anything too extreme half way through. Roughly 8:10 pace, very doable considering most of the field had already run 7:57 faster to get in.

But as championship races tend to do, the pace quickened with 400m to go and again on the bell lap. Nothing out of the ordinary. Heath took off and took the win.

Give the race a watch above, re-live the excitement and get pumped for this weekend’s meet, again down in College Station, TX.

View the race results below