Chris Lundstrom - Coach of Minnesota Distance Elite

Chris Lundstrom, or “Coach Lundo,” as he’s known by our local running community, is the Head Coach of MN’s premier elite running team, Minnesota Distance Elite. He is responsible for recruiting, retaining, and developing this team of 10-12 professional distance runners in events ranging from 1500 meters up to the marathon. Since this February’s Olympic Trials, Chris has been thrust into the spotlight as the leader of a team who produced 7 athletes who qualified for and ran the trials (a massive feat in and of itself), as well as two top 10 finishes in the female race with Dakotah Lindwurm, who is headed to the 2024 Paris Olympics, and Annie Frisbie, who took 10th place in the trails.

Chris is a native of Northfield, MN who competed in NCAA Championship track and cross country teams at Stanford University in the late 90s. He went on to be one of the original members of MDE, previously known as Team USA Minnesota. Some of his career accomplishments include a 3rd and 4th place finish in the USA marathon championships, and qualifying three times for the US Olympic Trials in the Marathon distance. He also represented the US in the 2007 Pan-American Games marathon and in 2010 won the silver medal with the US Team in the World Mountain Running Championships.

Since then Chris has been coaching runners and pursuing his studies. He holds a PHD in Kinesiology and is an active faculty member at the University of Minnesota (where I first met him as a student in 2012). Many UMN alumni know Chris from his teaching roles in sports and exercise sciences, as well as his marathon training class, which has produced over 800 first time marathoners.

On today’s episode, we’ll learn about the Coach behind this amazing team of athletes, his journey in running and competition, how the sport and training has changed in the last two decades, and of course we’ll chat a bit about the recent success at the Olympic Trials Marathon and hopes and aspirations for the upcoming track and field trials set for July 2024.