OLYMPIC STANDARD: Payne runs with former Olympian Nick Symmonds in endurance event

Jul. 7—Editor's note: This is the second installment of a three-part series documenting former Rogers State runner Brandon Payne's experiences at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials.

Growing up a fan of track and field, Brandon Payne developed an admiration for several professional athletes.

Jeremy Wariner. Galen Rupp. Bernard Lagat. All were among his favorites to watch blister around the unforgiving oval.

However, Nick Symmonds stood out among the rest.

Symmonds was an American middle-distance runner, specializing in the 800- and 1,500-meter races. He ran professionally from 2006-2016 after winning seven Division III national titles at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., qualifying for two Olympic Games (2008 Beijing and 2012 London) in the 800.

Symmonds was also a six-time U.S. champion at that distance, and though he never won a medal in his Olympic appearances, he did take silver at the 2013 World Championships.

"I grew up watching Nick Symmonds, and he is seven years older than me," Payne said. "He was like the dominant 800-meter runner during the 2012-2016 Olympic cycle. I always followed him, and I was an 800-meter runner in high school."

So when Symmonds — now a YouTube content creator with more than 410,000 subscribers across three channels, as well as the CEO of a supplement company called Run Gum — invited his supporters to a meet-and-greet June 22 just a few miles outside Eugene, Ore., the site of the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials, Payne couldn't pass up the opportunity to connect with his childhood hero.

This wasn't an ordinary meet-and-greet, though. What the two-time Olympian had planned was far more exciting than a Q&A or autographing session.

Symmonds gained such a large following on YouTube by creating videos in which he has "fun with fitness", competing against himself and others in a slew of running- and fitness-related challenges.

The challenge this time around? Run a mile every hour on the hour for 24 hours.

Of course, only Symmonds would be completing the full event, but he invited his fan base to join him for a few miles from 6-10 p.m. with the incentive of getting autographs, touring the Run Gum headquarters and being included in the video of the festivities.

All that extra stuff added a nice gloss to the proceedings, but running with Symmonds was more than enough a reason for Payne to make the short trip to Springfield, Ore.

"I follow his YouTube and social media accounts, and he mentioned in a video, 'If you're coming to the Trials, we're going to do a meet up,'" said Payne, a 30-year-old from Owasso. "So I paid attention to that because it'd be cool to finally meet Nick. I thought it'd be pretty cool to at least go meet him and try to get in a video."

Payne and his wife Calli had to reshuffle their schedule a bit because Symmonds gave only a day's notice, but they managed to make it work.

Symmonds displays a colorful personality in all his videos and appears humble despite his success as a professional runner and entrepreneur, and Payne said after interacting with the 37-year-old, that attitude is no façade.

"He actually seemed pretty levelheaded and pretty open," Payne said. "Everybody who attended, he welcomed them and asked about them, like where they're from and what they were doing there. He was pretty talkative, and I took a picture with him and all that. He was open to it, so he was pretty friendly and stuff."

The 1-mile course used was a three-lap loop around the industrial park where Run Gum is located. Symmonds marked the path with chalk beforehand to ensure everyone would run exactly a mile.

Payne ran the 14th and 15th miles of the event, which just so happened to include a popular reoccurring high school runner from Salem, Ore., Evan Gonzalez.

Competing against Gonzalez, who plans to walk on at Washington State next season, after having watched him in many videos was a treat itself for Payne, but he knew he'd have to give it his all to win the race against such a talented athlete.

The two were even the entire run, but Payne managed to edge out his opponent with a strong kick the last 100 meters, clocking a time of 5 minutes, 17 seconds.

The effort earned him $100, which is a common occurrence in Symmonds' videos. Those who win challenges are always awarded a prize, whether it be money or new running shoes.

Although the time was nowhere near his personal best at that distance, Payne said the race was far from easy, especially considering he rolled one of his ankles while trail running a day earlier at Hendricks Park in Eugene.

"We had no warmup at all or anything," said Payne, who was given the nickname 'Tulsa' by Symmonds. "The next hour came, and he was like, 'We're racing.' I was like, 'Oh wow, really? Dang.' We didn't have any warmup and didn't stretch; we just took off. We kind of all agreed to just sit and kick because I didn't want to run all out with no warmup. With no warmup and no stretching, going into it cold was pretty intense. We had a lot of turns, and there was actually some traffic we had to watch out for.

"Luckily, I was able to outkick Evan. I thought a lot more faster people would be there, but I'm thankful they weren't."

The next mile was just as competitive between Payne and Gonzalez, but the latter took the rematch and won the race in 5:15. Payne crossed the finish line not far behind with another 5:17 mile.

The former Rogers State University cross-country and track runner said his ankle pain flared up in the final stages of the race, preventing him from answering Gonzalez's kick.

"This one was for shoes, and (Symmonds) said, 'If you win again, you get to pick whoever wins the shoes,'" Payne said. "Evan really wanted it because he said he's never won the shoes, so he put it on hard on me. I think we started going with a half mile to go. At that point, my ankle was hurting. I had a race the next day, too, so I was like, 'OK, Evan's got it.' So he beat me and finally got his shoes."

Symmonds came in well behind Payne and Gonzalez on both miles, logging times of 10:08 and 10:25.

To watch Payne run a couple of miles with a former Olympian, visit the Nick Symmonds YouTube channel and select the video titled, "Running 24 Miles in 24 Hours" or search the URL https://youtu.be/QkV-YfSso6M. He appears between the 12- and 17-minute mark of the 24-minute video.

"It was pretty cool," Payne said.