The countertops in Chris Lukezic’s on-campus apartment are white. He can’t stand it.
“If there’s like a smudge of anything on the counter, I’m out there with 409 and scrubbing until it’s shiny,” Lukezic said. “My roommates are far more relaxed about stuff like that, but it eats me up sometimes.”
Dressed in a gray knit hat, jeans with the cuffs rolled up, black and white checked Vans and slight stubble growing on his face, Lukezic, who finished fourth in the men’s 1500-meter run at this summer’s Olympic Trials, looks like any run-of-the-mill hipster. While his appearance may suggest otherwise, Lukezic, a junior, has had to develop a relaxed attitude to match his natural, dogged perfectionism.
“I approach things differently now,” Lukezic said. “This is a very mental sport, not so much in the sense of the nitty-gritty where you’ve got to be tough and everything, but more in the sense of a mental relaxation exercise. If you let little things get to you, you’re not going to be good.”
This maturation process became evident during a string of three races this summer. In June, Lukezic failed to even make the final round of the NCAA Championships. Just one week later, he established a personal record of 3 minutes, 39.90 seconds at the prestigious Prefontaine Classic, setting him up for the thrill of his life: a trip to the Olympic Trials competing against the country’s best, including frequent training partner and the 1500 champion, Alan Webb.
“He’s really young just like I am,” said Webb, who caught national attention by breaking the 36-year-old high school mile record three years ago. “We’re going through a lot of the same things. With both of us, there’s no over thinking about how to run this way or that way.”
But staying with Webb in workouts and trying to run with him at the Trials turned out to be entirely different things.
Webb burst away from the pack at the halfway point in the finals, leaving everyone else jockeying for position. Lukezic, in last place at the time, decided to hang back and rely on his kick, or end of race sprint. With about 600 meters left, and still in last, Lukezic started kicking. He picked off runners exhausted from trying to stick with Webb, and drove himself into fourth 300 meters later.
“Passing so many people gave me so much more momentum,” Lukezic said. “From 600 out, I slowly tried to squeeze people out of the race. When you’re going by guys like that, it doesn’t even feel like you’re moving that fast.”
Depending on his kick marked a major change in strategy for Lukezic, who previously tried to run from the front of the pack almost exclusively. This approach has moved him away from counting on sheer talent and reflects a blossoming maturity.
“Chris raced very smartly at the Olympic Trials,” University of Arkansas junior Said Ahmed, the eighth-place finisher at the Trials, said. “It was the way I wish I could have raced, just laying back and relying on my kick at the end.”
Lukezic’s mental toughness has helped him overcome two disadvantages at this point in his career. At 5-foot-8, 125-pounds and 20 years old, he was both the smallest and youngest participant in the Trials. While Lukezic doesn’t consider either to be a limitation-”I just have trouble finding pants that fit,” he deadpanned-his dedication and attention to detail has helped him both overcome these shortcomings and stay injury free.
“When you watch Chris run, he’s got a real snappy stride,” Webb said. “It’s hard to put your finger on it, but he’s fast and can run strong as well.”
Lukezic said that he has tried to build a lifestyle most conducive to success as a runner. What has been most difficult has not been the workouts themselves, but structuring his daily schedule to maximize his track performances. For Lukezic, going to bed at 11 on a Friday night has not become a chore, but rather a habit. The last thing he sees before he closes his eyes is a poster from Japanese cartoon Speed Racer.
“If you don’t have your mind focused on what you want to do when you come into a college environment, it’s very easy to get distracted,” Georgetown Assistant Head Coach Juli Henner, who accompanied Lukezic to the Trials, said. “Chris knows what he wants and goes about achieving his goals in a very professional way. He has a really good knowledge of what he needs to do; I just help guide him in things.”
While Lukezic might continue to become competitive on the national stage, internationally is a different story. American distance running has been in a severe downturn since the mid ‘80s. Even Webb failed to break the slump during the Olympics, not even making the final in the 1500.
“At this time I do not see [any American] being competitive at the international level in races when there aren’t any pace setters,” Gary Verigin, statistician for Trackwire Publications, an organization that publishes widely-used collegiate track rankings, said in an e-mail. “If the race is set up and Webb knows what to expect he has the physical talent to run with the best, but when he has to create a race he turns to jelly, unless he races with other Americans who are less talented than he.”
Citing Lukezic’s youth, Verigin has him ranked seventh amongst collegiate runners in the 1500 for the upcoming season.
Despite Lukezic’s intense focus on running, it’s not even his first love. Until his junior year at a Seattle-area high school, when universities such as Stanford, Wake Forest and Georgetown began recruiting him heavily, Lukezic was dead set on attending culinary school. He received a chef’s encyclopedia as a Christmas present in ninth grade and has since acquired sets of knives and pots and pans; a French press coffee maker and stovetop espresso machine are still on his list. During senior year, Lukezic cooked a five-course meal for his friends, which entailed an early-morning stop at the fish-tossing Pike Place Fish Market.
“I got a rush from preparing the dinner,” Lukezic said. “I enjoyed the intensity of the moment. It’s a different kind of stress because you want to be doing it.”
Living as a cash-strapped and time-crunched student has limited Lukezic’s ability to cook on a regular basis. He does not regret his decision to come to Georgetown, however, which he based on the positive relationships he had already established with his future coaches and teammates. Still, attending an east coast college has been particularly trying in one food-related respect. Predictably, Lukezic demands perfection not only from his running, but also his coffee.
“Chris is obsessed with coffee,” Henner said. “He’s going to find out everything about the bean and how they roast it and where it’s from before he drinks it. That’s just Chris.”
“I’m used to enjoying great coffee and I was wondering what was wrong with it here,” Lukezic added. “I don’t know how I’ve gotten into it but I did. I’ve done a lot of research on it and probably far more than I should have.”
Lukezic, a finance major and theology minor, wants to open his own bakery when he’s finished running. Before that, Lukezic has his sites set on qualifying for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Because of complex rules that discriminate against unknown runners entering the Trials, Lukezic’s fourth-place time was not fast enough to make the U.S. team as an alternate. He hopes to achieve such a qualifying time to make the 2005 World Championships this season.
“If I had to put my money on it, I’d say that Chris would make it,” Webb said. “Anybody that plans on being one of the top milers in this country is going to have to keep Chris in his rearview mirror.”
John McDonnell, who has won 38 national titles as Head Coach at the University of Arkansas, agreed.
“In my book, having a head to go with the raw talent is what it takes to be a success,” he said. “I spend a lot of time checking out talented runners on other teams. I’ve always admired Chris for having both. He’s not afraid to stick his nose in there and mix it up with anyone.”
While Lukezic has already enjoyed great success on the track, the next few years will be crucial in his further development. American distance runners tend to peak in their mid-20s, meaning Lukezic could be in top form in time for Beijing. McDonnell said that next year he could envision Lukezic knocking four to five seconds off his personal record, pushing his time below the international standard.
Whether Lukezic realizes this potential will continue to be determined by his ability to balance his perfectionist tendencies with a relaxed approach in all his passions.
“I enjoy many simple things,” Lukezic said, picking crumbs off his countertop and throwing them into the sink. “But I’m scrutinous about those things.”
