On Saturday night, Graham Blanks won the 5,000 meters at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University, crossing the line in a new collegiate record of 13:03.78. His time eclipses the previous indoor record of 13:08.28, which Lawi Lalang set in 2012.
Blanks, a Harvard University junior, tucked into the pack for the first 1,600 meters of the race, coming through in 4:13.72, before making his way toward the front. He split 8:28.35 at 3,200 meters, then took the lead with 400 meters to go and gapped the field, taking a bow after he crossed the finish line in first place. Ky Robinson of Stanford was second in 13:06.42, also under the old record.
Blanks’s time is under the Olympic Standard of 13:05, making him the third American runner to hit the mark. Grant Fisher (12:54.49) and Sean McGorty (13:02.13) also have the standard.
Like Parker Valby, who broke the women’s 5,000-meter record earlier in the day, Blanks is coming off a victory at the NCAA Cross-Country Championships, which were contested on November 18. He ran away from the field in the last 1,000 meters to take his first national championship, closing out an undefeated season on the grass.
After the 5K in Boston, Blanks told LetsRun that he did one big workout in the two weeks since cross-country nationals—a fartlek followed by 4x800 meters—as well as some less-intense tempo runs. He said that going into the race, the goal was to run under the Olympic standard.
Now, Blanks will take some time off running before gearing up for a shot at the Olympic team in 2024. “I need to catch up on some homework and stuff,” he told LetsRun. “So this works great.”
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
