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After winning the NCAA Cross Country individual crown, setting the collegiate record in the 10,000 and taking the 10,000-meter title, it would be hard to imagine the 2010-2011 NCAA season going better than the 2009-2010 NCAA season for Liberty's Sam Chelanga, but it's very possible. The Kenyan senior says he looks at every year as a fresh one and is looking to repeat and keep the personal-best times rolling.

What have you been doing since NCAAs?

I took three weeks off after that 5K. I came back and did some pretty easy runs.

When did you go to Alaska? Was that only quite recently?

Yeah! That was just a private visit for me and my teammate Ryan Cox. He's been on my team and we've been planning this all year round. I had to work over the summer, so I left like July 31^st. We did some Alaskan stuff like hiking, hunting, fishing and stuff like that.

Did you come home with any big fish or did you shoot anything while you were hunting?

I got a few fish. I got two two halibut and two lingcods.

Did you eat them or throw them back?

Yeah, I did. I brought them back and we had the halibut. It was good. One of them was around 45 pounds.

How long did it take you to reel this thing in?

Dude, I don't exactly remember, but it sucked. It was so hard. Oh, man, it took me really long. By the end of the day I was so tired. I didn't like that.

The three weeks that you took off, were you completely ready for it or were you itching to run again?

It was kind of funny this season because I got injured a couple of times indoors and outdoors. Basically my first race was the one at Stanford then regionals and I then I felt like I was in shape to do something more. After I got done with classes, I was like, “you know what? I'm just going to let it slide and take time off.” I just went off and took it off and didn't do anything. I was really broke, so I had to get some jobs on campus to work camps. I even did a weird one. I worked at a soccer camp.

Soccer?

Yeah! It was during the warm-up season and I was a soccer coach. I just wanted something different than running. They were like, “yeah, you can be a counselor at this camp.” I was responsible to make sure the kids were fine and all this stuff. It was fun.

Did you grow up playing soccer in Kenya?

Kind of, but not a lot. I'm not really into it.

How long have been training this summer?

Umm, nationals got done on June 15^th, I took three weeks off...do you have your calculator? (Laughs) I know by July 4^th I was doing like 50-minute runs. Since then I've been training. This week I'm up like 70 miles.

And how much will you up it this cross country season?

I'm going to go high in September. I do singles because of class and all that, so if I say that I'm doing 90—well, that's a lot and that's hard. My goal is to get 100 miles a week. I'm going to go wild in September.

Sounds like a page out of Mr. McDougal's book? He was a singles guy.

Yeah. But I'm different because I don't really enjoy it as much. He enjoyed it. He was ready for it. For me, I know I'm supposed to be doing this, but again, 100 is a lot, dude. You have to do what you've got to do. You have to learn to be tough and just mentally get through it. You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

Can you race in weeks of 90-100 miles a week in singles?

No, no, no. I race in the 80s. It would have to be like low-80s. If I go like 85, that's going to make me really tired.

What's your schedule like? Where do you open up?

I haven't been racing a lot. I just started racing all season. Me and my coach decided that we're going to delay my season. This year, I'm going to start Oct. 1^st at Paul Short. We decided not to go last year, but then all season was rough because when we went to Pre Nationals, it was the first meet to get exposed. Everyone was so rusty. Even me. I was like, “OK, we really need something to get the rust off before Pre Nationals or the bigger meets." So, we decided that would go back to Paul Short.

Rust-busting at Pre Nats is not a good idea?

Not at all.

What are you and your coach doing so you don't get beat in those kicker races?

It was always the same thing. We have our goals set and a designed plan that's going to get me through my base training—which I'm almost done—and then get endurance. Then in the last part of the season, we'll work on speed work and stuff like that. That's the only way I can do it. Also, when I go to races, I need to chill. I don't need to go out hard so I can have the feeling of having people close. Other than that, it's just something that I'm constantly working on. I feel like it's a process. I'll have my kick within a year.

Are we going to see any of those 2:30 opening kilometers?

I can't control that. It's a race. (Laughs) It could happen. I know my body and how everything goes. I cannot sit and relax sometimes. I constantly race.

You get antsy sometimes?

If you really understand where I'm coming from, when you sit in a group of like 10 people, and you're just chilling and everyone else is just chilling, there are problems. People step on one another, people kick one another, people go up on another. You have everything going on. The motion is not moving. I get where I'm like, “I don't want to get spiked.” I get out there and keep rolling. I like sitting back if the pace is going well. But if it's slow where people get jammed up...I get really itchy and I just go.

Your collegiate record race was one of those cases where you were OK with being in a pack because the pace was fast enough?

Yeah, I held on there and the train kept moving.

I literally watched the entire thing this morning—for about the 25^th time. Then again, I'm a running loser. How often do you watch it?

First of all, you're not a running loser because I've watched it a couple of times too. Maybe I watched it three times. For the first time, my coach made me watch it when my teammate was watching it. Now I watch it.

We talked about you not racing so much. Is that going to change this year with you delaying your season?

No, I think I just do it enough. Five races, that's enough.

With that kind of schedule, does it put a lot of pressure on the races that you're racing in?

I like to take each season as a different season. I just go in like I've never won a championship or I've never been in top condition. I go with that mentality. My races are kind of like my checkpoints. We'll have a plan and the checkpoints will be the races. I'll go to the race and be excited for my first at Paul Short and see where I am. One thing I keep in mind is that I've got to think beyond November. We have spring, but it's still no pressure at all.

Are you planning on doing an early indoor race to get your NCAA qualifier out of the way immediately after cross country?

You don't lose anything by coming out and doing a trial race. Sometimes I'm like, “just chill out! You just won nationals” or whatever the result was and, “just enjoy the end of your season and be thankful that you made it nationals and take it easy.” Thanksgiving Break is usually the week of nationals. I'll go home and be happy and then come back and train for indoors. That way I can go with the mentality that everything is new. I can get shape to run the qualifying times for NCAAs. It's just fun. If I go and get my qualifiers right after NCAA cross country, someone like me, it makes me relax too much because I know I already qualified. I don't like it that. I like to have the desire to train hard and compete to run and get the times and stuff like that.

What do you have for goals going into this year?

You know what my coach told me? He told me, “there's only two runners in the nation right now who would be disappointed with anything but first place. That's David McNeill and Sam Chelanga!” I won and he got second. What am I going to do? All I can say is, “I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do and pray that I'll be healthy.” I'm going to go out there at the end of the season and get an honest result and I'm going to be happy.

Are you going to be going after any new course records?

Honestly I'm not really into times. I'm not a time guy. I just get these times when I race. When I race and it's honest—by the end of the race it's a good time. Sometimes it's a course record. I don't actually look into it like, “I'm going to go for a course record.” I do like fast times though. It means a lot more on the track. Because track is standard and it's uniform. It's the same all over the place. You know if you run 13:20, then that's legit. Cross country is just more fun. You just go. Time is nothing. As long as I'm in a range of good times, that's good for me.

I've got you talking times. What kind of times do you have in your mind for this next outdoor season?

I don't want to sound too modest, but I would be happy to do better. For example, I've run two times for 5K indoors. My PR is 13:24 outdoors. I'll be thrilled if I slash that a little bit. I watched the way Chris Solinsky ran and I was with him...and the way Galen Rupp has running. I feel like I should be able to do something good. Also, my elder brother, he ran 13:14. That was his PR. His 10,000 PR was 27:36. We always talk about how I'm going to go for his record. I would be really happy if I ran something under 13:15 and crush it. You've got to chase something.

Do you miss not having Galen Rupp up there with you in races?

I don't know why, but I like more competitive racing. I get bored if I'm just running by myself. I miss racing those guys. It's kind of good if you win nationals, because people only care if you won. It doesn't matter if you took second but the race was fun. I love the racing aspect of it. I love the feel of racing at nationals. I care about the quality of the field. That's when it's really fun.

What is going on with your U.S. Citizenship?

It's too many processes. You have to get a Green Card. I started the first process. I got a permanent residence. It's highly political. Hopefully I'll work things out and I get it some day, whenever it comes. I did this in the past couple of months. I'm honest, I'd love to race for America. That's the best option that I have. I've had a lot of success since I've come here. I never raced when I was at home. I've made great friends and it's the best thing for me to do. I thought, “OK, I thought someone in USATF or US Olympics will say 'let's get this guy and help him'”, but it's highly political. You can't hurry up anything. I don't think they can do anything. You just have to stick with what's written down in the law. It's going to take time.

It's going to take as long for you as it would anyone else?

Yeah, I thought I was at first that they would be interested in using my talents, but apparently it's not like that. That's kind of unfortunate, but I've just got to move on. I study government and I've read all this stuff about getting citizenship. What's written in the law is that you have a couple of options: you can either obtain a green card and establish permanent residency. If you get this card, you have to have lived in America for five years and then after five years you can get your citizenship. Or you could apply through something for special abilities—like if you're a smart guy, a scientist or something and they want you. They can work something out and it can take you like three years and then you can get your citizenship. Or if you marry an American, I think it takes like three years and then you can apply for it.

Sam, I've got a couple of sisters who are pretty and 21-years old...(laughs)

I was about to say, “all right, Tony... (Laughs) end of interview! This discussion is over!"

Last year, you won and your teammate, Evans Kigen took 20^th. Has Liberty ever had two runners as All Americans in the same race?

No, no, no. Never in a cross country race.

How much running do you do with Evans?

We push each other. I'd really like to go as a team too. We tried so hard at the beginning of the season last year. We tried to make it past regionals. He was the only other one to go. I was pushing him hard so we could do as well as possible at nationals.

What about the recruits coming in?

I'd say compared to last year, we have some good guys. I'm really optimistic. The only reason I really came back for this fifth year is because Josh McDougal was always going to nationals as an individual and I came in and I thought that I would be really happy to leave school knowing that one time our team made it to nationals. It's going to be a challenge, but we're going to try with the group that we have now.

How often do you go back to Kenya?

I just stay here all the time. I go there over the summers. I'm almost the last one in my family, so they worry about me. I'm going to chill. It's expensive, so I can't go home all the time. I just go there over the summers, although I didn't go back this summer.

With you applying for citizenship and stuff, are you “Americanizing”?

Obviously I'm Kenyan, but it's like, obviously I was born in a village and then I moved on. I was always never there. You know when, during your life, you're like, “something is missing.” I get out of high school and I start running for three years. I always grew up by getting up in the morning and drinking tea with milk and sugar, then lunch is beans and corn and evening is ugali and every day is the same. I always had questions like, “man, this is kind of like the same thing every day?” I was like, “why can't we have rice on some of the days?” You can't ask that question because you're young and you don't know what's going on. Then, guess what? I land in America. In the morning I go to the cafeteria and I'm like, “wait a minute. I can eat waffles and I can do all this. This is sweet.” Every once and a while, I'll meet up with my friends and eat some ugali, but not a lot.

What's your diet consist of now?

Usually I just get up in the morning and have cereal with milk. Then I'll come back for lunch and usually I'll make some sandwiches—usually peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes I'll put some Nutella on it. Sometimes when I don't have time, I just swing by the store. Generally I just eat sandwiches though. In the evening I'll cook for myself. I'll make pasta most of the days with ground beef and stuff like that. Sometimes I'll make like potatoes and steak and put them on the oven. Then I'll cook rice and stuff. I like to eat vegetables, so I'll make myself a salad. I'm not really good with cooking, but I try to eat well.

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

That's a tight question. I have two roommates, Josh and Dan. Dan makes really good quesadillas, but if I was to choose a meal...Josh always makes chicken cordon bleu. They're amazing. When I'm done running...I wish he would make those every day. He's really good. He's from New York.

He's a Cooperstown guy?

Oh, yeah! You know him?

Sam, I told you I'm a running loser.

Get a life, Tony. (Laughs)

Can you share a crazy running-related story?

It was the Christmas season of 2007-2008 and I was in New York and I was with my friend Cory. His dad works at West Point Military Academy. We were up in upstate New York and we went out for a run. It was kind of dark. It was like 10 miles and we were almost done. I saw two huge black things. They kind of looked like bears, but I really didn't know that they were bears. I told Cory, “what was that? I think they're bears.” I thought that was cool because I'd never seen a bear in my life. I'm looking and it just clicked like, “wow, those are bears.” I look back to say something to him about how huge they were and...Cory was gone. I went after him like, “crap! These things probably kill!” I'm running for my life and I finally found him toward his home and was asking him why he took off like that and he's like, “yeah, those things kill!” I'd say they were only like 50 feet away. They were really close. If you called Cory today, he'd tell you that those were some huge bears.

When do classes start for you?

I start tomorrow, dude.

Are you looking forward to that?

No, I feel like meeting my friends and stuff, but I'm not really into the classes and work and stuff. I'm taking like 15 credits. Initially I was only going to stay for four years, but then I decided to stay and finish my eligibility, so I added two minors. I'm going to do 15 this semester and 15 the next semester and get two minors. I didn't want to go to get my masters, because the only masters program at Liberty was something like human services. I was like, “I believe if I want to know more about human beings, I'll just talk to them.” I'll be getting minors in criminal justice and strategic intelligence. I'm a cool guy and a smart guy.

Is there a job you'd like to get after studying those things?

It's kind of a long story, but I'm taking government classes because I like government stuff. I wanted to learn something and I don't like business stuff. I wanted to learn about something that I had no idea about and government was one of the most challenging. If you look at it, politics rule this world. People fight over it. Criminal justice and intelligence and politics—I wanted to learn about these things. I want to learn more and and help more. I want to help poor countries like my country. Why is it that once you get an honest person into power, he can't supply for the people? Why is it that normal that a person would be so proud to run a really poor country and not do anything? You can't always rely on other countries for stuff and missionaries. African countries and even some of the South American countries, they have resources. What if they had an honest politician? Someone who manages resources well? They could get out of poverty. Stuff like that. I decided that I was going to study that stuff.

You're really getting your money's worth at college!

I only had one chance to go to college. If I had stayed in Kenya, I wouldn't have had a chance. If I was to travel all the way to America, then I'm going to get something that I like and I know. A lot of people aren't interested in government. Most people are interested in business or medicine. It's good to have doctors, but doctors who work in a poor country, they don't get paid well if the country's at war, businesses don't prosper like that in war. We need good politics and good policies for businesses to thrive. That's why I study government.

So you're going to have a four-year degree and two minors?

Yup. A government degree and two minors.

If this running thing doesn't work out for you, you'll have a lot to fall back on.

Running is the means to the end. Seriously, I would love to enjoy running, but what if I woke up—and I don't want to say it, but who knows what happens tomorrow? You have an opportunity and you maximize it.

About the Running Warehouse:

My KWIK-Es are sponsored by runningwarehouse.com, located on the California coast in the small community of San Luis Obispo. The folks over there include one of the owners, Joe Rubio, a two hour, 18-minute marathoner and current head coach of the Asics Aggie RC. Jonathan Spiros oversees footwear buying and served many years as assistant coach at College Park High School helping Lindsay Allen. Erik Dube is in charge of accessories and helps with footwear buying. Erik has finished the Western States 100-Mile Race several times and was assistant coach at San Ramon Valley High School helping Scott Bauhs through high school. Erik’s wife, Tera, is in charge of customer service and is an ultra marathoner and former track star at Campolindo High School, where her brother Chuck Woolridge is currently head coach. The entire online and phone customer service representative staff at the Running Warehouse, including the staff listed above, have spent considerable time working the retail floor. This, along with the coaching and personal athletic experience, enables the company to have a unique perspective of understanding the needs of every level of runner from beginner to All-American. Check them out when you get a chance!