Chris Solinsky was running great, with an eye toward the Summer Olympics in London. Then, a serious hamstring injury changed his plans. Credit: Getty Images

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Chris Solinsky has always been the guy who could run through anything.

He could push through the kind of exhaustion that first saps legs and lungs and then drains hearts and souls. He could overcome mental fatigue with sheer force of will. He could outwork the best and out-want the rest.

Watch the video of Solinsky winning the 10,000 meters at the 2010 Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. He breaks away from the lead group with 900 meters to go and covers the final 800 in a staggering 1 minute 56 seconds, lapping elite runners as if they're standing still.

The Stevens Point native and former University of Wisconsin star looks like Secretariat at the '73 Belmont Stakes. He is a study in effortless effort, winning in 26:59.6 and becoming the first non-African to break the 27-minute barrier. He crushes the U.S. record by 13 seconds.

And here's the thing: He had never before run the 10K.

In the world of middle-distance running, Solinsky is as tough as they come.

But the human body has limits. And he has crossed one.

The hamstring he tore from his pelvic bone last August, the one that gave out after a 120-mile-per-week training program, the one he had to have surgically reattached with four titanium screws, is sending a message.

For once, Solinsky is listening.

He has decided not to enter the U.S. Olympic track and field trials June 21-July 1 in Eugene, Ore. He would have had no chance to make the team. The disappointment hurts more than the still-healing hammy.

"I'm 27 years old and I'm just getting in the prime of my career," Solinsky said in a telephone interview from his home in Portland. "I was setting myself up to have a really legitimate chance to win a medal (in London).

"That's been the hardest part, because of where I saw my progression going and what I was capable of."

Like fellow Stevens Point Area High School / UW graduate and world-class runner Suzy Favor Hamilton, Solinsky is snake-bit when it comes to the Olympic Games. But at least Favor made it to the Games. Three times.

Solinsky is pitching a five-ring shutout. At the 2008 U.S. trials, he led most of the final 1,000 meters of the 5K before faltering down the stretch and failing to make the team.

"I just wasn't strong enough aerobically to do what I was trying to do that day," he said. "I was trying to win from the front. If I was 200 meters stronger, I would have been on the Olympic team."

Now this.

"When people find out you're a runner, the first question they ask is, 'Have you ever run in the Olympics?' " he said. "That's kind of a hard pill to swallow. But, realistically, I have two more Olympic cycles in me. I'm not going to let this beat me."

The ironic thing about it is that Solinsky was done in by his own motivation. After finishing 12th in the 5K at the 2009 World Championships and running a personal-best 12:55.53 in '10, he decided to up the ante on his already grueling training program.

"In 2010 I had a really successful year and I had stepped up my mileage as well as my intensity," Solinsky said. "I saw a benefit and had a great year. I got a little bit greedy. I did 120 miles five weeks of that year and the rest were in the 100-mile range. I thought, 'If I double that, I'm going to get aerobically stronger.'

"So last year I did 12 or 13 weeks at 120 miles or more and none of the runs were very easy. I think my body kind of revolted."

Even Solinsky's coach, Jerry Schumacher, who guided him to five NCAA Division 1 titles at Wisconsin, warned him to slow down.

"I would take an afternoon off and I felt guilty, I felt lazy," Solinsky said. "This is what made me good in high school and college. What is my competition doing? Whatever they're doing, I want to do more."

The hamstring started giving him problems. He saw it as just another obstacle to run through and ignored the pain. Two weeks before the 2011 World Championships, the hamstring had enough. Three of the four major muscles tore off his pelvic bone.

"It's kind of a sad story," Solinsky said. "We were at a training camp. My wife and my dog were there. I tripped over my dog coming down the stairs and caught myself, but I felt something pop in my leg.

"I think it was going to happen sooner or later."

Solinsky underwent surgery Sept. 16. As the fog of anesthesia lifted, he asked his wife to check results from the Brussels Diamond League meet held that day. More bad news: Galen Rupp had broken Solinsky's U.S. 10K record, running it in 26:48.0.

"That was a little bit of a double whammy," he said with a laugh.

Solinsky didn't run again until the day after Thanksgiving, when he jogged a mile with his father, Wayne, back home in Stevens Point. In 2008, Solinsky had run the mile in a blistering 3:54.1. This time it took 9:30.

"We were both breathing equally hard," he said.

He wanted desperately to return to form in time for the Olympic trials but every time he pushed the hamstring in recent months, he suffered a setback.

"The timeline we asked for, it was pretty unrealistic," he said. "I tore 90% of my hamstring off my pelvis. I'm going to have to bag it this year and swallow the hard pill that it's not going to happen.

"It's a matter of my body not responding. That's part of sport. This injury wouldn't have been that big a deal if it happened a year earlier. By this time next year I'm going to be at full strength."

But he's going to have to wait until 2016 for another shot at the Olympic Games.

"I didn't do things correctly in 2008 and then to be on the other side of the coin this time, it's like, 'When am I going to get it right?' " Solinsky said. "The good news is that my health is going to be there and I'll have a career after this year.

"I think I'm going to be a lot better off. I think the next four years are going to be possibly my best four years. But it's going to be a long four years."