Consistency is the name of the game for Erik Sowinski, and that might be an understatement.
He won a bronze medal at the indoor World Championships in 2016, he was a five time All-American at the University of Iowa, he’s won multiple indoor National Championships and even held the American record in the 600m.
He’s also gone sub 1:50 in the 800m over 200 times in his career.
You read that correctly, over 200 times.
It’s something that he admitted he didn’t think about leading up to him accomplishing the milestone. But it’s an accomplishment that he cherishes greatly.
“Since I hit that I have,” he said. “Leading up to it, I never really thought about it. Dave Monti was kind of the one who put a spreadsheet together of all my races and all of my performances. So kind of sitting down looking at it and seeing not just the amount of races, but the amount of awesome places that I have been able to travel to do this, I was able to take a step back and realize that this is a pretty awesome thing that I’ve been able to do, that not alot of people get to say.”
Sowinski was made to run the 800, which is evident by the success that he’s been able to attain throughout his career. But he came to that realization through the experience of playing a different sport. Sowinski was a talented basketball player and had offers to play at the next level coming out of high school. Believe it or not, it was basketball helped him realize that the 800 was the event for him.
“When we would do suicide drills and that kind of stuff, I was always the one pushing that and seeing how far I could push my body,” he said. “So the 800 was a natural fit, since it’s pretty much an all-out sprint from the get-go.”
Fast forwarding to the present, Sowinski has seen a return on his investment in pursuing the sport of track and field, as well as the investment that others have made in Sowinski’s career and his life.
Sowinski lives in Iowa City, Iowa, and has lived there since he graduated college. He’s still being coached by his college coach, Joey Woody, who’s also the director of cross country and track and field at the University of Iowa. He loves the community there that’s supported him throughout his journey, and he cites them as one of the main reasons that he’s been so successful year in and year out.
“It’s really a credit to all of the people that I’ve had behind me since I started this journey,” “I wasn’t a highly touted recruit out of high school by any means. I came to Iowa on a 10% scholarship and I’m still with my college coach. Having his support the entire time, and that community behind you – I don’t need to hesitate to ask if I need anything from anyone around here.
“I think it’s more just a culmination of having that kind of support system that’s really just helped me be consistent, because I don’t have any worries when I step on the track or off the track because I know there’s always going to be someone there to help. So that’s been pretty cool.”
The good folks in Iowa City have not only followed his journey, but they even got to be a part of the celebration. Sowkinski ran his 199th sub 1:50 race in Iowa City, and then ran his historic 200th race under 1:50 at the Drake Relays the following weekend. Sowinski said that reaching those milestones in front of the people who have supported him the most throughout his career was very special to him.
“There’s a lot of people that had a pretty good idea going into that,” he said “Just having that home support is always great.”
Sowinski believes that being consistent in approaching the little things have paid dividends for him in his career. It’s also a message that he relays to younger athletes as well.
“For me, it’s been doing the little things consistently, year after year after year after year,” he said. “Being consistent in the weightroom, being consistent with my diet and sleeping. I’ve got the same warmup routine I’ve done for the last 15 years, I have the same routine I do before bed. I’ve never missed more than two days of running from any injury in a row since high school. So it’s just being consistent with all of these things.”
Sowinski wasn’t sure if running was in the cards for him after college, but then he progressed and progressed, and now, he’s one of the most storied and consistent 800 meter runners in American history. His career so far has exceeded his expectations.
“It’s been way more,” he said. “If you would’ve told me as a kid, or even the beginning of my senior year of college that this is what I’d be doing, I wouldn’t have believed it. Up until April/May of my senior year in college I was taking the MCAT and applying to med schools. That was going to be my plan, and then the whole running thing took off.
I had no sponsorship, no agent – anything out of college. So even to just think that here, a decade later, that I’ve been able to accomplish all of this and remain so consistent, I never would’ve believed it if someone would’ve told me.”
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