You just knew that a big performance was eventually coming for Luke Puskedra. Ok, maybe not quite this big, at least not yet.

 

“The place more than anything is a big surprise to me,” Puskedra said after Sunday's Chicago Marathon.

 

Considering what he ran in his 26.2 debut last November, I think he’ll take his time as well. 

 

After a bumpy start to his pro career nearly made him quit the sport altogether, the 25-year-old righted the ship in a big way on Sunday in Chicago, finishing 5th in a massive five minute PR of 2:10:24. His placing matches those of Ryan Hall (2011) and Dathan Ritzenhein (2013) as the highest by an American in Chicago since Abdi Abdirahman finished fourth in 2006. 

 

All this from a guy who doesn’t have a sponsor and looked downright out-of-place yesterday as he maneuvered his six-foot-four frame patiently through the Windy City streets. Puskedra hung with the front pack through 20 miles, content to follow the pacer-less leaders as they trucked along at a tempo right in Puskedra’s wheelhouse.

 

“I didn’t really come in with that much confidence, and just mile after mile I was like, ‘alright’, just competing. With there being no pacers, I think it was easier just to turn that off,” he said.

 

And compete Puskedra did, all while rockin’ a vintage Team USA jersey that harkened back to the Puskedra of old, the one that was sure to have loads of these types of performances coming out of the University of Oregon. The former Duck All-American’s struggles, however, including that disastrous 2:28 debut in New York last November, seemingly put a result like the one he had on Sunday in serious jeopardy.

 

But after his stunning performance on Sunday, Puskedra credited his wife and Oregon distance coach Andy Powell for putting him in position to bounce back from his disappointments. When Puskedra’s Nike contract wasn’t renewed for 2015, he and his wife Trudie moved from Portland to Eugene, where Powell eventually “coaxed” him to start coming to UO practices. That fresh start is clearly paying tremendous dividends for Puskedra now, who took two months off from running after New York.

 

“It took awhile to be motivated everyday and enjoy running and not just the training,” he said.

 

His reset button of sorts helped the 25-year-old take a huge step forward with his 2:15 sixth-place finish in June’s Grandma’s Marathon, but according to Puskedra, it wasn’t until the U.S. 20K Championships on September 7th that things really got going, as his fourth place finish in New Haven left him just behind three of America’s best road-racers.

 

“I’d say it started clicking probably at New Haven 20K, being able to race with a lot of the top U.S. guys like Sam Chelanga, Jared Ward, Dathan Ritzenhein. I was very encouraged after that,” Puskedra said. 

 

Puskedra’s success there led him to reach out to Ritzenhein about running Chicago, who put him in contact with race director Carey Pinkowski. That was three weeks ago.  

 

With a career-altering performance now firmly in his back pocket, Pukskedra is suddenly in the discussion for one of those three U.S. Olympic Marathon spots, as his time on Sunday was the fastest by an American not named Ritzenhein or Keflezighi since 2012. You figured these types of days were coming when Puskedra ran a 61-minute half while he was still in college, but the 2:28 and a subsequent loss of sponsorship put this in question, if not completely, then certainly so soon. 

 

But the talent that led him to so much success in college, including three top ten finishes at NCAA XC throughout his career, clearly never left. It just needed a jolt of energy after New York pushed him to the brink. Puskedra’s run in Chicago proves that every athlete is just one good performance away from changing the course of their career. 

 

Now the name that had been all but forgotten in the running world is being uttered in the same breath as two of America’s finest marathoners. 

 

“It feels good, I really look up to those guys, I really look up to Dathan and Meb… Just to even be mentioned in the same sentence or even the same paragraph as those guys is definitely a huge honor.”

 

Puskedra will meet those two, plus every other top American, at his next marathon, the U.S. Olympic Trials on February 13th in Los Angeles.