My guest for today's episode is Parker Wolfe. If you're paying attention to the next generation of American distance running, his name has been on that list for a while now. Just last weekend, Parker made his World Championships debut representing Team USA at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida. In a loaded men's 10K field, he ran with patience and composure and steadily worked his way forward and finished as the top American across the finish line in 12th place.

Just a few months back, Parker left the NCAA as an 11-time All-American at North Carolina, anchoring the program during the early years of coach Chris Miltenberg's tenure and leading the Tar Heels to multiple top 10 national finishes in cross country. Individually, his highlight was probably winning the 2024 NCAA Outdoor 5K title where he upset Nico Young in one of the biggest races of his career.

The resume for Parker speaks for itself. He's run 3:34 for the 1500m, 3:54 for the mile, 7:30 for 3K, and 13:10 for 5K. In this conversation, we talk about his transition from college to the world stage, what he's learned from racing these international studs, and what comes next as he steps into the next phase of his career as a pro with Swoosh TC under coach Mike Smith. Also, he's in a loaded men's two-mile at the Millrose Games on February 1st in New York City.

____________

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram⁠

Guest: Parker Wolfe | @parkerw19 on Instagram

Produced by: Jasmine Fehr | ⁠⁠⁠@jasminefehr on Instagram⁠⁠⁠

____________

Episode Highlights:

How he built confidence throughout college to race against the top U.S. pros:

“A lot of it is the ignorance of not knowing and just going in like, ‘I can try to win this thing.’ Maybe you can't, but maybe that's a good thing that you think you can. That's kind of how I went into the 2024 Trials: ‘Maybe I can get top three–I don't really know these guys and I’m not going to look too far into it, but I'm going to put myself in it and see what I can do.’ I think if you go in with that [mindset], it actually ends up being a lot better. You’re a little more confident, you're not freaking out about who's in the race or who's lining up…

Going in, it was about seeing if I could compete with them and treat it like the local 5K. [Coach Miltenberg] always preached that in college: treat the dual meet the same way you treat NCAAs. I think that totally applies to racing against these pros for the first time. It’s just going in, seeing if we can compete, keeping the same warmup routine, same everything as the dual meet. I think that's why we were able to compete so well against the pros without having raced them ever.”

His favorite way to approach racing:

“If you were to ask me a couple years ago, I'd probably say lead from the front and try to make it hard. But over the last few years, I think [Coach] Milt has done a really good job with me of developing that top end speed at the end of a race. When I won NCAAs, it was off a kick and a slow pace, so I actually think I can run it any way it goes. I'm pretty confident in a sit-and-kick or a fast race.

If I were to pick one, it would probably be a little bit of a faster race. I love a good time trial 5K with a close at the end. I definitely benefit from a pace that's hard from the start, making everybody question whether or not they want to do it, but I think the beauty of my development last year is that I’m able to do it any way. If it’s slow, if it's fast, I think I can do it. I think that's what makes the 5K so exciting: you can get either one of those and it's going to be competitive.”

How finishing as the top American at the World Cross Country Championships boosts his confidence heading into track season:

“I definitely take a lot of confidence in it from seeing the guys I was able to beat: a world champ, all these guys who are top-five in the world in their events, and marathoners. I definitely draw a lot of confidence from it. I wouldn’t say that 10K cross country was my thing in college; I was always in the mix, but never able to really reach that next level. I just know that I'm better on the track…

I’m drawing a lot more confidence for the track from what I did on the grass just this last weekend. I’m really excited just to get there, get going, and keep building strength. The sky’s the limit because if I can do that on the cross course, who knows what I can do on the track. I’m super pumped for it!”

Advice he would give himself if he had another year in the NCAA:

“If I had one more year, I’d probably just stress the importance of consistency. I think everybody gets caught up in the single workouts that go really well. I know I found myself doing that a lot last year… We didn't do anything crazy this fall. I think we had literally one specific workout on grass the entire fall and I was able to do really well based on purely consistency.

So if I had another year, I would be telling myself to just focus on not getting hurt and training consistently. It doesn't have to be crazy numbers or crazy workouts. I’ve had consistency over the last fifteen weeks and this is where I was able to get off of fifteen weeks of training. That's probably the part I’d stress the most.”

Thoughts ahead of racing the two-mile at the 2026 Millrose Games:

“Just being competitive was our whole thing of doing cross country in the fall. Do something hard and keep sticking your nose in it every time it gets hard. I think that's going to be perfect for what we're going to do on the track: keep putting yourself in it when stuff gets hard. I'm a competitive person, so I'm always going to try and win the race. I don't care who's in it. As long as I'm there fitness-wise, I know that I can be competitive. I’m just going to try and put myself in it and see if I can end up with a win. We'll see how it pans out. It's a good field. I think if you can just be competitive in this, you're going to end up with a good time and a really good spot. That's all I need from it.”

Listen to the full episode with Parker Wolfe here.