Galen Rupp has pulled out of the 5000-meter race at next Saturday’s Millrose Games in New York and, owing to the effects of a virus, has canceled the rest of his indoor track season.

In a comment distributed by his agent Ricky Simms, Rupp said, "I have not felt like myself" for four to five weeks and that tests conducted last week confirmed he was fighting a virus.

"Despite backing off significantly in my training the past week I have not been getting better and will not be competing in any more races this indoor season," Rupp said. The multiple U.S. record holder said he'll take a break from training to recover and then focus on the outdoor track season, especially the World Championships in China in August.

Rupp, the 2012 Olympic 10,000-meter silver medalist and top-ranked 10,000-meter runner in the world for 2014, had originally spoken of trying to better his indoor American two-mile record of 8:07.41 at the Armory Track Invitational in New York on January 31. He later backed off that claim, saying he’d use the race to prepare for the 5000 at the Millrose Games. Asked by Runner’s World Newswire on the day before the Invitational if he thought he’d break his 5K mark at Millrose, Rupp paused and then answered, “We’ll see.”

But he faltered badly on the final lap of that January 31 two-mile and faded to fourth in a race won by his Oregon Project teammate Cam Levins.

“The good thing is that I got a lot of training in before [contracting the virus]," Rupp said. "This is nothing too serious. It's not like I broke a leg."

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