Running prodigy Sam Ruthe is having a record-breaking year. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
The ease at which running prodigy Sam Ruthe smashed the long-standing secondary schools 1500 metre record took the 16-year-old by surprise.
The Tauranga Boys' College student shattered the record, held by Commonwealth Games runner Richard Potts since 1989, by eight seconds on Saturday at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Track and Field Championship in Hastings.
"I was really, really surprised because I thought I was just going to beat it by a couple of seconds, like two seconds or something," he told Checkpoint on Monday.
"I was just like, I'll head out a bit fast and get some extra room just in case I don't feel too good towards the last couple of laps, and I just kept going because I felt so good."
Running prodigy Sam Ruthe smashes secondary school records
Ruthe was 200m ahead of the rest of the field when he crossed the finish line, almost 30 seconds in front, when he crossed in a time of 3m 38.62s in his heat at the championships.
The teenager said the plan with his coach had always been "go for it straight from the gun" as they had Potts' record in their sights.
"And then that race just felt so good I decided to do the same for the 800m the next day, and that have gone much better]," Ruthe said of his record-breaking weekend.
Potts was in Hastings to watch as his 1500m record got broken.
"I did get the lucky opportunity to meet him, he was a great guy and it was really cool to share that moment with him.
"We just had a couple of laughs, it was all light-hearted."
Following up his 1500m success with another record in the 800m on Sunday was not always a given for Ruthe.
"I can never tell just because I'm pumping with adrenaline all the time the night before, so I never get that much sleep, so it's always hard to tell - but my legs must not have felt that bad because otherwise I don't think I would have had a crack at that 800m like I did."
Ruthe said "not much" was going through his head when he was out on the track.
"I don't think about much at all to be honest - it's just all empty brain."
How did he celebrate breaking a 36-year-old record? By doing "absolutely nothing".
"I had a four-hour drive back to Tauranga straight after my race."
What celebratory treat would he like?
"Some nice Nike supplies were meant to get here today but the delivery van delivered it to the wrong place, so that would have been quite nice, but unfortunately that didn't turn up today."
Ruthe has had a run of record-breaking results this year after in March, aged 15 years, 11 months and 7 days, he became the youngest person to run a sub-four-minute mile.
Next up, Ruthe will travel to New York early next year to compete in a couple of indoor races.
"Hopefully run under 3m 38s for the 1500m, which is probably a second faster than what I ran [on Saturday], and that will be the fastest ever time for a 16-year-old over 1500m, which I'd definitely like to tick off.
"To me that's not my main goal - it's just another step in the right direction of following [Australian Olympian] Cam Myers' footsteps... just trying to tick off these times both [Myers and world record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen] had hit at my age is just showing me that I'm always heading one step extra in the right direction."
Ruthe said his love of running was what drove him when others might be spending the summer relaxing.
"I'm not going to lie, I do have a good time. I do spend a lot of time with mates and stuff, so life's not too bad at the moment."
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