ATLANTA — Sam Chelanga, a U.S. Army first lieutenant who retired from distance running in 2018 to join the military before making a comeback, won the AJC Peachtree Road Race men's race on Sunday.
Chelanga, 36, told Jerry Carnes it was actually after the 2018 Peachtree that he retired. He had made the decision the previous year to quit running and join the U.S. Army.
It was the Army, however, that pulled him back in.
"People noticed in the physical tests that I was really fast, they said 'Hey you should run the 10 mile for the Army team, so, long story, now I'm back here," Chelanga told 11Alive's Jerry Carnes.
Back indeed. His unofficial time in winning on Sunday was 28:42, ahead of Fred Huxham by only three seconds in a notably close Peachtree finish.
The victory also clinched the USA Track and Field Men's 10K championship for the Kenya-born Chelanga.
He said last year the marathon trials in Atlanta didn't go well for him, but that he's steadily been getting better and better since then.
He finished eighth at the 10,000-meter Olympic trials in Oregon last weekend.
"I've run a lot of road races but... I've been coming back to running. The trials last year didn't go well, it was my first one, then I just ran the Olympic trials this year, I was like number eight - so coming in I knew I was coming (back), but I wasn't sure in how good shape I was, cause every day was just kind of getting back to it."
The Peachtree, it seems, signaled he's gotten just about fully back to it.
