NCAA’s most successful distance runner will strut his stuff before Honolulu Marathon

First, he excelled at soccer.

Then he became an all-time great at the University of Oregon in a different sport, and has now embarked upon a promising professional career.

In yet another similarity to Marcus Mariota, Edward Cheserek doesn’t like to talk about himself.

“He was my classmate,” Cheserek says with a nod, his eyes lighting up and smile broadening when asked if he knew Mariota at Eugene. “I didn’t know he was from here.”

While Mariota was winning the Heisman Trophy and leading the Ducks to the brink of a football national championship, Cheserek was in the process of winning 17 NCAA titles in cross country, and indoor and outdoor track.

Those are the most crowns ever for a male Division I athlete; hence the nickname “King Edward.” He also won scholar-athlete awards and graduated with a business degree.

Three months after his pro debut, in November 2017, Cheserek posted the second-fastest indoor mile ever with 3 minutes, 49.44 seconds in a meet at Boston University. On Saturday he will again see how fast he can cover that distance in the early morning sunshine of Waikiki.

He did it in 3:58.1 last year.

It’s easy to think of something called the Kalakaua Merrie Mile as a little fun run — and that’s what it is for most of the 2,000 people entered in this appetizer to Sunday’s main course, the Honolulu Marathon.

Some will jog, some will walk. Some in costumes.

Cheserek, 24, says it will be fun for him, too, when he and the other elite runners speed over the same course a few minutes later. It’s also serious, since this is his job.

He is favored to repeat. But there’s tough competition, including two-time Olympic 1,500-meter medalist Nick Willis, who was fourth last year in 4:03.6. Ben Flanagan, the reigning NCAA champion at 10,000 meters, is also entered.

And to win the first-place prize money again ($4,000) he will have to chase down all of the elite woman runners (who get a 26-second head start) as he did last year.

But back for a bit to football.

On the first day of 2015, Cheserek celebrated New Year’s the way any good Duck did that year. He watched Oregon beat Florida State in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

And he did it in person.

“I went to the Rose Bowl to support my teammates,” he said in a February 2015 interview, referring to track-football crossovers Devon Allen and Dior Mathis.

Cheserek also said he couldn’t sleep after watching Oregon lose the championship game to Ohio State on TV. As a teenager at Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, N.J., he closely followed the New York Giants, and Alabama football.

Perhaps the native of Kenya should have listed his gridiron-fan bona fides on his application for U.S. citizenship. Getting to the finish line swiftly has never been a problem for him, but the path to naturalization has been long and frustrating. It has already cost him potential Olympic and World Championship opportunities. An immigration lawyer is working on his behalf.

If there is no resolution soon, Cheserek — who has yet to run under any nation’s flag — will represent Kenya in the 2020 Olympics, his coach and manager, Stephen Haas, says.

Cheserek hopes it doesn’t come to that.

“I’ve been here for a long time (since 2010). I feel like I grew up here,” he said Thursday. “I’ve gotten support from a lot of Americans, and I want to support them, represent them.”

He’s not a citizen, but he’s a taxpayer (“a lot of taxes,” Haas said). Cheserek lives and trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., with an elite athlete visa, which must be periodically renewed.

Cheserek set a course record of 21:16 to win the 4.7-mile Manchester Road Race two weeks ago. It was 16 degrees when the race started that day in Connecticut.

“To be honest, weather doesn’t bother me,” Cheserek said. “It didn’t matter.”

The second-place finisher at Manchester, Paul Chelimo, was also born in Kenya.

Chelimo, who won the 2016 Olympic silver medal at 5,000 meters representing the United States, became an American citizen through joining the U.S. Army.

That route was not open to Cheserek because the program through which Chelimo enlisted has been suspended since 2016. Also, he is already under contract with Skechers, which would prevent him from representing the Army in running events.

Other Kenyan runners have also been granted citizenship through other paths. But the man who ran the fastest mile in the world in 2018 waits.

And he tries not to worry about it.

“It could happen today, it could happen tomorrow,” he says. “I just focus on my training and my racing.”

Honolulu Marathon spokesman Fredrick Bjurenvall aptly describes him as, until something gives, “a man without a country.”

Or, more precisely for track fans, a king without a country.