Sound Running
This story first appeared in Footprint, a newsletter about running. Sign up here to read more
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Something happened to Drew Hunter on Saturday night. When the bell rang under the lights of LA’s Jack Kemp Stadium, and the last lap of the Sunset Tour 1500m began, he was towards the back of the pack. Until he wasn’t.
“Here comes Hunter,” declared the commentator, as he accelerated out of nowhere. Just as others flagged, he found another gear – overtaking each racer, one by one.
Driving home on the straightaway, a brief glance behind revealed just how far he’d pushed past the competition. Hunter lifted his arms in the air as he broke the tape, finishing faster than he ever had before: 3:33.41.
It was a kick for the ages. But Hunter has done his fair share of thinking about final laps.
“This might be the last leg of my running career,” he told Footprint. “And I would hate to just do another four years of the same thing, and then be like, well I guess I’m done.”
Almost a decade has passed since Hunter, 27, was signed out of high school by Adidas. He swiftly showed promise, clinching victories including the US two-mile indoor national title in 2019, before some difficult setbacks.
He was forced by injury to miss the US Olympic Trials in 2021. And at last summer’s Trials, he finished fourth in the 10,000m: one spot away from qualification for Paris.
Starting this season with a new sponsor, Asics, and a new training setup, he decided it was time to explore. Veering off track to hit the road, he raced April’s Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in Washington, DC, and May’s BOLDERBoulder 10K in Colorado for the first time.
Gone are the days when Hunter was all-in on one surface, and distance, throughout the year. “I really just wanted to do things I was excited about this year,” he said. “And I wanted to do things differently than most of the guys I’m competing against.”
It seems to be working well. Returning to the track, Hunter also won the 5,000m at Portland Track Festival in June. He will race the 5,000m and the 10,000m at the US national championships later this month.
“My relationship with running has changed so much since I started,” he said. “I have to do things that keep me excited when I wake up in the morning. Most of those things, believe it or not, they’re not necessarily anti-track: they’re just things I haven’t done yet.”
If he could go back and talk to himself, just as he was starting out, he would suggest shifting focus beyond the big races. Some of the most impactful things Hunter has done in running – like co-founding the Tinman Elite pro team – were “actually outside of running fast,” he said.
“Sometimes I felt like it was the end of the world if I wasn’t performing and running well, and injuries and setbacks really sort of crippled me,” Hunter continued. “I wish I could just tell myself [back then] to lean into your teammates and other people.
“I think it would have been a lot more palatable of a career. I probably wouldn’t have had so many super low lows, and high highs that came crashing down.”
His perspective has been shifted not just by these highs and lows, but the arrival of his two daughters. “Running can be very selfish... There’s a part of you that can wall off others to be a good runner,” said Hunter. “With kids you can’t do that anymore, because you have to give them everything.”
Parenting has given his running as much as it has taken, he stressed. The sport is no longer just teaching him; he wants his daughters to understand its lessons, too.
“I’m not going to win every race. I’m gonna fail. But I can work incredibly hard at something, and I can show them what perseverance looks like,” he said. “I can show them what hard work looks like.
“And I can also just show them that there are things that will light your heart on fire in this life, and you should lean into those things. For me that’s running. And maybe for my kids it might be something different.”