By Rich Sands, @thatrichsands.bsky.social
(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
HONOLULU (06-Dec) — Coming off a second-place finish at last year’s Kalakaua Merrie Mile here, Vince Ciattei knew he was ready for a breakthrough. Though he’d been running professionally for several years, he had yet to realize what he believed was his full potential. But after the dissolution of his previous team, the Oregon Track Club Elite, a move to train at high altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2023 was yielding results, and in the prestigious Honolulu road race he signaled that he was legitimately one of America’s best milers.
In the Merrie Mile, he finished a close second to Yared Nuguse, after they had caught and passed the women’s field, who had been given a 30-second head start in the mixed-sex pursuit race. Though it’s a relatively low-key event given that most athletes are far from peak form in December, it gave Ciattei a rejuvenated sense of self-assurance heading into the Olympic year.
“Last year this race was huge for me. It was a springboard into everything that happened in 2024,” Ciattei told Race Results Weekly in an interview on the eve of this year’s edition. “I’d never done fall in Flagstaff before. I’d never spent that much time at altitude, so first and foremost it was a confirmation that I was responding well to this.”
Nuguse was coming off an epic season –winning the U.S. title, placing fifth at the world championships and smashing the American mile record– and third-place finisher Hobbs Kessler had won the world road mile title earlier in the fall, so the results were a reliable barometer for Ciattei. “Being right near Yared, being in the thick of it with those guys, that gave me the mindset that I can mix it up with them on the bigger stages,” he said.
That confidence, along with a full contract with the Under Armour Dark Sky Distance squad in Flagstaff, propelled Ciattei to the best season of his career at age 29. Ironically, his most impressive performance of the year was also the most agonizing.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, Ciattei finished fourth in the 1500 meters, one spot from making the team for the Paris Games. In the process, he shattered his three-year-old personal best, clocking 3:31.78 behind Cole Hocker, Nuguse and Kessler, two-thirds of the eventual Olympic 1500m podium.
“I’m proud of that race, but I’m still disappointed,” said Ciattei, the runner-up in the NCAA indoor mile and outdoor 1500 in 2018 for Virginia Tech. “It still is tough. In all the scenarios that you imagine that race going, that’s the one that you specifically don’t plan for, being fourth place. But one thing that did help my mindset coming off it was the Olympics themselves.”
At Stade de France in Paris in August, in an unprecedented showing for American runners, Hocker won gold, Nuguse took bronze and Kessler finished fifth. “The way that Cole and Yared and Hobbs ran, it was just unbelievable,” Ciattei marveled. “I didn’t beat those guys, but I was knocking on the doorstep and then they went 1-3-5 at the Olympic Games. That says something about what my performance would have translated to on that stage. But at the same time, I wasn’t on that stage, so there’s still work to be done.”
Though frustrated to have missed his shot at those Olympics, the Trials did give a boost to his self-esteem — and opened new opportunities. He was invited to compete in his first two Diamond League meets in Europe. The results in the Monaco 1500 (ninth in 3:32.04) and the London mile (12th in 3:52.54) weren’t quite what Ciattei was hoping, but he admitted that he was still processing the emotions from Eugene and that may have compromised his performances. “Doors like that opening were so great, but it just really made me hungrier to take better advantage next time,” he said. “I’m hoping that this coming year, maybe the Millrose Games or other Diamond Leagues will give me those types of opportunities.”
In the meantime, he’s happy to be back in Honolulu, where he isn’t sure what to expect in this year’s Merrie Mile. The women’s field will have a bigger lead this year (32 seconds) and the race will feature pacesetters for the first time. Prize money is awarded on overall order of finish, with the winner receiving $7,500, the highest first-place award for a U.S. road mile. “It’s almost two races at once,” Ciattei explained. “First and foremost, we need to make sure that we catch the front group before we think about racing amongst ourselves. And that might be hard to do.”
Among those in the field are Olympians Nikki Hiltz, Emily Mackay, Weini Kelati, Bryce Hoppel and Kessler of the U.S., Susan Ejore-Sanders of Kenya, Oliver Hoare of Australia, Nozomi Tanaka of Japan and Great Britain’s Neil Gourley, the 2022 winner.
Not that Ciattei is lacking for confidence.
“I do always fancy my chances in a road mile. I really have taken to the race as a pro,” said the Baltimore native, who won his second USATF title in the event this year and finished fourth in the Fifth Avenue Mile in September. “I feel like I run really free on the road. Sometimes on the track I can get caught up with knowing the splits and thinking about position. And on the roads you just sort of run.”
The new year will provide Ciattei three chances to qualify for Team USA, with World Athletics indoor, outdoor and road championships on the schedule. “Last year I had the belief that I could do it when I wasn’t even close in my previous pro career,” he said. “Now I feel like I’m right there. I’ve not made a U.S. team yet. And I’m going to be 30 before my first opportunity to do that. But coming off this season, more than ever I believe that I can be on one or more of those teams. The ultimate goal is to be on those teams and then fight for medals. But you gotta be on those teams first.”
