Only four D3 athletes have ever run a mile in under four minutes (or the 1500 meter equivalent of sub-4). In Saturday’s mile at the Penn Relays (3:05 ET), three-time national champion Nick Guarino of Fredonia State will attempt to become the fifth. I caught up with the senior this past Friday, and what follows is our chat about his upcoming races, his background, his raining, and his future plans.

Scott Rodilitz: So I’m guessing you have a race tomorrow?

Nick Guarino: Yep, tomorrow our team is going to the Geneseo Invite. I’m not sure what the weather is going to be like, but it’ll be okay—it’s going to be in the fifties by the time my race goes off. I’m running the 800 meters as a tune up for the Penn Relays, for the mile coming up.

SR: You’re trying to break four, is that correct?

NG: Yup, I’d like to break four. That’s the goal, you know what I mean? There’s some sub-4 milers in there, so I’m pretty sure everybody else has the same idea.

SR: For sure. I mean, once you get pretty close, you might as well go for it. You ran 4:04 indoors, pretty much solo past the halfway point, which was pretty impressive, and you’ve won three straight D3 1500/mile titles, so it’s the next barrier, I suppose.

NG: Yeah. Penn will be my first time trying to go under it, I guess. I’ve never gone out faster than a 2:01 or 2:02. I went out 2:01-2 last year at the Penn Relays [where he ran 4:07], and that felt fast, and then at [2011 indoor] ECAC’s, 2:02, so that’s the fastest I’ve gone out. I actually trained through the indoor season—I didn’t really peak at all—and [Penn] is a week later this year, so I’ll be that much sharper than last year, you know?

SR: Yeah, for sure. And from there the focus is on nationals? Or will you be trying to get to USA’s?

NG: Well, I’d at least like to win another 1500 title, and there’s a possibility—I’m not sure yet—but I may try to double. You know, I’ve got three titles and it couldn’t hurt to try to double. The 1500 final would be first, and 800 prelims on Friday wouldn’t still hurt me for the 1500 on Saturday. I’d still be feeling fine for it, or at least I’m assuming—I’ve never done it before. I’d probably still be okay to still win the 1500 and then see what I could come back in for the 800.

SR: I’m sure it would be a good matchup between you and [Amherst’s indoor 800 champion] Ben Scheetz—he’s been looking very fit recently [1:48.71 this past Saturday].

NG: Yeah, definitely. I’m not sure if he’ll do the 400-800 double again outdoors, but it would definitely be a good race.

SR: Sure. We’ll let’s step back for a second—how did you get started running?

NG: Well, growing up that’s always been my asset at sports and stuff, I’ve always been the fastest kid. I used to play youth football and was the fastest guy out there, but I didn’t start cross country until my junior year in high school, actually. Freshman and sophomore year I didn’t really do track—I wasn’t really a distance guy. I wanted to be a long jumper. But at the end of my sophomore track season I thought that maybe I should try cross in the fall because I was focusing more on the 1600 and 800 then, and I ended up running pretty good. It made me finally realize that maybe I could be good at running.

SR: So how did you and [your twin] Josh end up at Fredonia? Was that the logical place to go, or were you looking elsewhere?

NG: Well, I had no idea what I wanted to do for a major. I’ve got it pretty set now, I’ve got my majors figured out, but I liked all of the colleges I got into and didn’t really have a preference. They were all good academically and the cost wouldn’t be any different, and I just really liked the coach at Fredonia. It turns out there’s been a lot of coaching changes that we’ve had to go through. We had one coach who was gone after one year and then we had another coach who was gone after two years and there was one for half a year, and I had on okay cross season, but I peaked way too early, and now we have a new guy again. He’s been there a while and he’s been collaborating with my old coach, who got me my first national title.

SR: Has the training stayed the same, for the most part?

NG: Yeah, for the most part. Like I said, my sophomore and junior year was the same training and it’s still the same now because our coach is collaborating with my old coach. It’s a little different than some of my other teammates, but pretty much it’s very similar stuff. My training is just different, you know what I mean? The period of training I’m in now is different, since they’re starting to peak for conference championships, and I’m not even close to peaking yet.

SR: So what kind of stuff does he have you doing? What’s a typical week look like?

NG: Uh, well you know when I ran that 1:49?

SR: Yeah [April 9th]

NG: Well, I just started my speed stuff that week for the outdoor season, but we’ll do 400’s, 200’s, 300’s, big interval stuff. A really, really hard workout is like a broken 800—have you ever heard of that? Like an 800 split up, so, for example, you could do a 600 at a certain pace and then a fast 200, or you could split it up into 400’s, and those will really kick your ass.

SR: Yeah, and short rest between those pieces, right?

NG: Yeah, and then between sets it’s longer. You know, basic interval stuff. If we have a race we’ll also have an endurance workout—a tempo, steady-state, or a fartlek, depending on the week. And then we’ll have an interval workout, and then the race, plus a Sunday long run on our own. Usually we have the workouts Monday Wednesday and then we just go easy the rest of the time.

SR: And do you do a lot of training with Josh and your other teammates or do you do it mostly on your own?

NG: I mean, yes and no. All the easy runs and long runs I do with all my teammates, but the workouts, it’s just me and me brother. He can actually stay with me in workouts, but he’s training for the steeple now. We don’t run the same ones anymore--in indoor we would--but now he’s trying to run more steeple stuff. He has been there a couple times to join in the mid-distance workouts—we just did one with him this week. But I like to run with people as much as possible. You don’t want to go too fast on your easy runs and stuff, so I try to run with everybody on the team, even the slowest guys, just to make sure I don’t kill myself. I have no problem going 8 minute pace on a run.

SR: Well it seems to have worked out out pretty well.

NG: Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I mean, sometimes I just leave the watch at home, seven minutes equals a mile. I’ve done that a lot these past few years, it works out real well since you don’t worry about pace. You’re not inclined to go fast at all, you know, because you don’t want to be like, “ok, I have an 8 mile run, and I know it’s exactly this loop.” It’ll make you want to push it because you want to get it done. If you’re just going for time, you can slow the pace down. It wastes more time just jogging easy, but you still get the same effect.

SR: Yeah. Well, do you have any funny stories or anything like that?

NG: I can’t think of any funny stories off the top of my head. There’s probably plenty of stuff, but I can’t think of anything right now.

SR: Anything else you’d like to share? I think that’s all I’ve got.

NG: Well, this weekend I was going to shoot for a 1:47, weather pending, but I’d be happy with a pr tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll go sub-4 at Penn. I’ll be looking forward to it. And then of course there’s going to be nationals, where maybe I’ll try to double, and then, hopefully, I’d like to make the US championships. If I break 4, I’d probably go, and if I have a choice between the 800 and the 1500, I’m not sure which one I would do yet. Hopefully, I’ll make it there this year.

SR: You’d be in some good company with some other former D3 stars, Will Leer, Nick Symonds…

NG: Definitely. I know four D3 guys have run the equivalent 1500 or broken four: [Haverford’s Karl] Paranya, [Willamette’s Nick] Symmonds, [Pomona-Pitzer’s Will] Leer, and [Rochester’s] Tom Tuori, I think.

SR: Yeah, exactly. It’s a short list.

NG; It was kind of funny—after I ran my 1:49 800, which was at the U of Rochester Alumni Invitational, Tom Tuori came up afterward to talk to me, which was pretty cool, actually.

SR: Awesome.

NG: Yeah, he just kind of encouraged me and stuff. It’s always cool to talk to athletes like that that have been there before.

SR: Well, thank you very much for all this, and good look tomorrow, good luck at Penn, and good luck from there onward!

Nick ran a 1:51.50 the following day, and though it was a couple of seconds off his personal best of 1:49.49, he was the runaway winner in some pretty inclement weather, so I see no reason to think that he can’t break out this weekend at Penn. It’ll be very exciting to watch, and it’s definitely something you don’t want to miss.

Be sure to check back in for the weekly recap on Monday, and I’ll try to have another interview out this time next week, potentially with distance star Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence.