Sam Ruthe runs tune-up workout

In February 2026, the FloTrack team caught up with young New Zealand runner Sam Ruthe in North Carolina, just five days after the 16-year-old shattered the U18 Mile World Record. Sam ran 3:48.88 at the BU Terrier Invitational in Boston on 31 January 2026. He will race again in Boston, this time in the 3 K race on 22 February at the Saucony Battle for Boston invitational. 

This trip to the United States of America was Sam’s first experience running on an indoor track. Discover what a workout is like for a top-level runner and some of the technology involved. Hear Sam’s father, Ben Ruthe, a former champion runner, tell us how Sam got into running and what it has been like as Sam’s running times just keep getting better. 

Discussion points

• What difference do you think indoor versus outdoor tracks make on running times? 

• Why are there separate records for indoor tracks and outdoor tracks? 

• How much impact do you think genetics has on ability? 

View the original video on the FloTrack YouTube channel. 

Transcript

Bryan Diebel

What's up guys? Bryan from FloTrack. We're here at the JDL Fast Track 'cause we're catching up with Sam Ruthe, the 16-year-old phenom sensation. He ran the 11th fastest mile time, all time U 18 world record, New Zealand national record. He broke over 40-year-old record, 3:48.88 in Boston. In case you're living under a rock, here it is.

Sports Commentator

Bring it home. Sam Ruthe. Sub 350, can you believe it?

Bryan Diebel

Incredible performance. And he said there's more in the tank.

Sam Ruthe

There's definitely more in the tank.

Bryan Diebel

And what is this kid eating for breakfast? What's this kid doing in workouts? We're here, we're going to find out mostly the question of what's this kid doing in workouts. So, we're going to get that for you. We're coming to you. Here we go.

Sam Ruthe

What do you reckon?

Sam Tanner

That's 10 fours.

Sam Ruthe

...that’s harder

Sam Tanner

...wait, is it 10 fours and then...No, that's it. That's good as. Do 10 fours. That sounds way more fun. And it's kind of staple. I mean that, that could be good either way.

Bryan Diebel

This is a really good workout. Yeah, either one of these would be awesome.

Sam Ruthe

Yeah.

Bryan Diebel

Sweet.

Sam Ruthe

And then true. Look at the other one. And then that was more like the other one.

Bryan Diebel

Yeah, your dad sent that one. So Sam, we're here. JDL, North Carolina, you obviously were in Boston just last weekend, you know, recently, 3:48.88. Have you kind of had more time to like let that sink in and settle with like what you did?

Sam Ruthe

Yeah, I mean the last couple days have definitely been quite crazy with all the media and everything that's been going on. Finally starting to comprehend it. Like I've started realising all the facts about that race and like what really went down and yeah, it's quite crazy and still can't fully comprehend it, I guess.

Bryan Diebel

Just absolutely wild, right? Like 11th all time. Just breaking a national record at just 16 years old. Just, it's just so many things. Like I, I still can't wrap my mind around it, you know, what's kind of this week look like? What's the next few weeks looks like, obviously going to be in the States for a little bit, having a couple races. What have you kind of been doing between Boston and now even?

Sam Ruthe

The 3:48 changed things up a bit. And we're here for two weeks and then we're going up to Boston and we'll see what I race up in Boston to see if it's another mile. But yeah, we've definitely got a lot more time in the US and a lot more training to be done and hopefully some more improvements.

Bryan Diebel

Awesome. And then how's today's training session kind of fit into this training block, this, you know, few months here where you're really going after some times?

Sam Ruthe

Yeah, I mean today's training's probably just a bit of a freshener up.

Bryan Diebel

What is the workout going to be today?

Sam Ruthe

The workout today is going to be a 2K tempo followed by two 600s at probably like goal 3K pace-ish and then two 400s. Two 200s.

Bryan Diebel

Cool, man. Awesome. Looking forward to watching the workout. I'll let you keep warming up.

Sam Ruthe

All right, perfect. Thank you. It's so dry, eh.

Bryan Diebel

How far are you going for your warmup?

Sam Ruthe

Just 15 minutes. My watch isn't working. Like it's telling me I'm running 3:45s right now, but I'm definitely not running 3:45s.

Yeah, like when you actually do the workout, like your throat gets like sore. I'm not used to that at all. Yeah. Like after my first session I was like coughing for the next three hours. It was ridiculous. I'm going to flip now so I even it out.

Ben Ruthe

Yeah, I'm Ben Ruthe. I'm Sam's dad. Decided we'd shoot down to North Carolina because the weather was supposed to be a bit better and they've had another snowstorm since we've been here, 11 inches before we got here and now another inch or two today. To be able to use the track facility indoors means that we don't have to worry about the outdoor weather conditions and it's been a mad few days, a ton of media and yeah, it's just trying to keep things as level as possible for Sam really. And he's had the luxury of... ah this will be his second workout on the track and so just getting to know the track and given that this for you was his first time, racing on an indoor track ever. So, it's quite good just to get a feel for it and yeah, hopefully he'll, he'll feel a bit sharper in spikes. He was in flats before when he was working so should be good today.

Sam Ruthe

I'm sweating. It's so hot in here, eh? Especially once you run past this big thing here. It's like a heater or something, eh. Three and a half more minutes.

Bryan Diebel

Your pace lights ready? What are we doing?

Sam Tanner

We've got the pace lights ready and we're going to hit 2K tempo. He's actually, I just need to go over there and press start, which is pretty exciting.

Bryan Diebel

Dude, that's sweet.

Sam Tanner

I'm going to press go on the wave lights. But it's going to go, it's going to, it's going to lap first. So, you've got to lap like last time before you start the workout and then once it comes back down the home straight, jump on and go. Three minutes after the tempo. Whenever the lights go after the tempo.

Sam Ruthe

Yeah.

Sam Tanner

And then you've got two minutes after the 600s and then...

Sam Ruthe

I'll probably hop on and off.

Sam Tanner

Yeah. And then 90 seconds after the 400s.

Sam Ruthe

Yup.

Sam Tanner

And then you've got 60 seconds between the 200s.

Sam Ruthe

Alright. Easy then.

Sam Tanner

Easy session. Easy session.

Sam Ruthe

Always easy.

Sam Tanner

Always easy. Make it look easy.

Sam Ruthe

2K tempo's basically the warmup anyways, isn't it?

Sam Tanner

Yeah. You ready to go?

Sam Ruthe

Basically.

Sam Tanner

Stride drills? Nah?

Sam Ruthe

No, that's what the 2K tempo's for.

Sam Tanner

2K tempos for the drills?

Come out here. Workout X. And ready?

Sam Ruthe

Yep.

Sam Tanner

Okay. It's sending it off. Go. There they go. Now I'm ready. Now the coaching's done. All the coaching's done. Just don't fall off the lights.

Sam Ruthe

This is, this is bad having the lights because you guys have got to be able to tell if I fall off the pace or not. I can just lie otherwise, but...

Sam Tanner

Yeah, like oh, the pace lights were wrong. Oh, that'd be actually real bad.

Sam Ruthe

I must say I'm doing 10, 10 metres behind the pace lights. Yeah.

Sam Tanner

Secretly I've just stitched him up and the pace lights are actually way more aggressive. Don't look at your watch.

Sam Ruthe

My watch doesn't, like, isn't accurate at all. I ran three 50s for the watch, apparently.

Sam Tanner

Three, two, go.

He just, he just looked at his watch like, what are you doing looking at your watch Sammy?

It just, it's just double checking, making sure the lights are good. Are the lights right?

Sam Ruthe

Yup.

Ben Ruthe

Yes, I guess the journey for us sort of started the night that he ran 3:53 in Whanganui in New Zealand.

Sam Tanner

On the light, Sammy.

Ben Ruthe

The next day we drove five and a half hours back to our home in Tauranga. We were supposed to fly out the next day to New York, but there was a snowstorm in New York so all the flights were cancelled, but managed rerouting through San Fran. So, we flew to San Fran a day late, stayed in San Fran 24 hours, flew to Boston, got there 72 hours before the race. So, he got to race in reasonable condition, just over 50 hours travel. So, it was a bit of a journey. So, it was a bit of a surprise actually that he ran as well as he did 'cause he felt like his legs were a bit heavy leading into it.

Sam Tanner

FloTrack on the content.

Bryan Diebel

In Boston during that race, like you just, you executed it very well. What was the game plan and strategy for that one?

Sam Ruthe

Probably from experience just because the week before that was a bit rougher, heading out in 54 high first lap and then having a couple 60 and then 60, 62 nearly second lap. So, I just took that experience from the previous week before and I was like, I've got to run this a lot more even. 'Cause I know I can run faster if I run even. So yeah, I took that into the, into the next race and then, yeah, it turned out a lot better.

Bryan Diebel

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben Ruthe

A year ago, I was pacing him when we came to the US. Those days are gone now. We knew that he was going to be a good runner, primary school cross country. He'd, he'd win it by sort of half a minute or more or it started growing and growing and then he'd go from race to race, and the races got better and he just kept on winning them. And so, he wasn't doing any training, he was just doing the ordinary kids' races that kids, every single school kid in New Zealand would do. We kind of knew he was going to be okay at running. He got into it and I think within the first few months he was the youngest person to break four minutes for 1500 in New Zealand. Like all of a sudden it was like, oh wow, actually he could, he could be reasonably good at this. And you'd sort of say his hot streak's would've been a year, but his hot streak's really been three years since he started. Like ever since he started running he hasn't had a bad race. Like he's just got better and better and like we're constantly trying to prepare him for bad races and let him know that this isn't normal and this, and the streak's got to end. But he's just gone from ridiculous thing to more ridiculous thing and I get, and it's hard to get more ridiculous, but he still finds a way somehow. So, I don't know when that streak ends. But we'll be there for him whenever it does and prepared him for that I hope. And yeah, he just goes from strength to strength in the meantime, so enjoy the ride.

Sam Ruthe

One more lap.

Sam Tanner

One more Lap. Nice.

Yeah, there you go. It's, see, it's crawling.

Sam Ruthe

Oh, I counted it right?

Sam Tanner

Yeah, you nailed it.

Sam Ruthe

It's hard counting that many laps.

Sam Tanner

You got six minutes. Six minutes. That was six minutes, eh?

Sam Ruthe

Yeah.

Sam Tanner

Get your spikes ready Sammy. So, if you, when you want to change, you can just slip them straight on.

Bryan Diebel

How are you feeling overall?

Sam Tanner

Pretty good. Now I'll just warm up, I guess. So yeah, that always feels pretty good.

Sam Ruthe

Two minutes and then two 600s.

Sam Tanner

About two 600s at 1:33.

Sam Ruthe

Yep.

Sam Tanner

Yep. And then two 400s at 57 and then two 200s in 25 and a half.

All right. Keep this smooth. 3, 2, 1. Let's go.

Yeah, Sammy. Nice.

Ben Ruthe

He's so good at this stuff.

Sam Tanner

Especially with the lights.

Ben Ruthe

A little bit ahead of the lights. You've got to ease back a little.

Sam Tanner

Yeah. Sammy, nice.

Ben Ruthe

Two to go.

So, his grandmother made the Munich Olympic final in the 800 meters. Yeah. And she held the British record for 20 years and the Scottish record for 30 something years. His grandfather broke the world record for a debut marathon in 1971 running through 12. My wife went to four world cross country champs. There's probably some genetic advantage in that, but I think there's also, his grandparents never displayed any medals around the house, had no photos of running and it's the same for us. My wife and I still ran, so he still saw us go out running regularly, but he didn't really have a grasp on how, how much we've done in the past. And I think one of the good things about that is he has this, like the, the lack of knowledge means that he's not really aware of the limits or what, where those lines are. So, he just jumps into races and has no expectations of what time he should run, and he just wants to win and run fast and yeah, so there's no, there's no sort of limit, I guess.

Sam Tanner

How you feeling?

Sam Ruthe

Good.

Bryan Diebel

It's like your third time touching a banked track, right? Is that something like that?

Sam Ruthe

Yeah, it's an interesting feeling, isn't it? I mean every, like I've ran on two banked tracks before this, but everyone feels different so far. So, it's funny you trying to get used to it.

Sam Tanner

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Nice.

Ben Ruthe

No jump start on him this time.

Sam Tanner

Yeah, you’ve got to jump on it.

Sam Ruthe

The people around me and the experience, it really makes it hard for me to muck up my own running career just 'cause you know, they've all learned from their own experiences, and they probably would tell me if I was doing something wrong. They've made a lot of mistakes all joined up together and I feel like they've just put all those mistakes all in one big bowl and just made sure I, made sure I don't make any of them.

Bryan Diebel

I was worried, I'm going to run right into you.

Sam Tanner

That was like... The lights were set for 1:33.0 and he nailed it 1:33.0, which you'd expect, but it's kind of cool to actually have, you know, like do that.

If you could design your whole year to have perfect workouts every day, this stuff's like life hacks, eh.

It's been pretty cool having someone else in the squad get to the level that I've been at, especially over the last six months. He's actually so strong for someone who's done such little training and so for him to like be there in threshold workouts and also pushing me in the speed stuff has been pretty cool. It's been a pretty special journey watching him go from this little 14-year-old or 12-year-old winning AIMS Games where I'm taking photos with him like, oh hey buddy, to like him being taller than me and smacking me around in workouts. You know, it's like, what the heck man? It feels like it's just happened in such a small period of time and so it's, it's crazy, really, to be honest.

Ben Ruthe

Good man. This is a lot of rest for a workout.

Sam Tanner

It's a lot of rest for a workout. Bro, you got 90 seconds. Not that much rest.

Bryan Diebel

It's great actually ,what?

Sam Tanner

There's not a lot of rest with the camera man.

Sam Ruthe

I feel like the progression has just been, based off my training 'cause my coach has really made it so I'm just building on training and building on training and you know, as I get older I get more and more training. So yeah, this is really my, one of my first years doing over, over like 60 kilometres a week. So I guess just the more k's I do, the fitter I get and the faster I become. So, it's really easy to progress when you are not training to your fullest extent. So, when I add more training in, obviously my body gets, gets more adapted and I get fitter. So yeah, it's really, really easy to progress when you've got volume that you can progress to.

Sam Tanner

45, 46, 47. So now you're doing two twos. Two twos, 25:5. He'll probably run fast. He'll probably run fast.

Ben Ruthe

I've definitely had some feedback from people that talk about pushing kids too fast and too soon and things like that.

Sam Tanner

3, 2, 1. Yep.

Ben Ruthe

The funny thing about that is like, we are the opposite of that. So we actively encourage them to do other sports and not running, for a long time and even the mileage that he's doing, like often it's about 70k a week, the biggest week is 90k. So one of the things that I've thought is everybody on the start line, they're either trying to run as fast as they can, or they're trying to, they're trying to get into better races so that they get pulled through to better times. And so the perception that we're pushing him I think is just unfounded. All we're doing is trying to find a race where he's going to have a challenge and for most kids that's their high school races or their national champs or their state champs. But for Sam it's, he's got to travel internationally for that. I don't feel like we're doing anything different than every single parent does for their kid. Just trying to get him in a race where he's got some people to race. So is it better that for the next three years he just races solo or do you give him something to enjoy and chase and I think it would be a disservice to him to just, just hold him back. So, we just, we've decided we'll let him chase it and maybe there's some pressure involved but he, he just seems really relaxed and chill, chilled about it and so he is handling that really well. So yeah, I'm proud of him for that.

Sam Ruthe

When I was in primary school and stuff, I'd win cross country by ages. I'd always want to train and win it by more, but my parents holding me back really created that tension of me wanting to train more. I feel like, you know, when someone tells you can't do something and you want to do it, it makes you want to do it even more so. And that's sort of why I feel like they kind of really encouraged me to run by not encouraging me to run, which is quite funny. So yeah, the way they did it actually it really encouraged me to run, I guess.

I'm so happy I've got sessions here before my race 'cause lowkey if I just hopped straight on this track, my legs would like not be able to feel out the back and I'd be like stumbling.

Ben Ruthe

I feel like that one you just seemed to be running with more confidence than the session on Tuesday.

Sam Tanner

Yeah and that was smooth.

Ben Ruthe

And it might be the spikes as well though, but it looks...

Sam Ruthe

yeah, as soon as you put on the spikes it's like, poppy...

Ben Ruthe

...yeah, it looked way more poppy.

Sam Ruthe

The session felt pretty good. It felt better than the last session on this track. I feel like I just got a bit more used to the bends so I found my rhythm a bit more this session I guess. And then the pace lights were obviously there with me the whole session. So it was nice just taking my mind off it. And I feel like I was really relaxed.

Ben Ruthe

I mean Sam, Sam says to me maybe six weeks ago, he said, oh Dad, I don't really like all this talk about how I'm running good times for my age. Like I just want to race the best in the world. And now all of a sudden he is in the conversation. I mean he is a 3:48 guy, but if he's running, if he's lining up with 3:47, 3:46 guys, you know, he's potentially going to be in the battle with them. If anybody's lining up with somebody who's one or two seconds quicker, their goal would be to try and beat that person. I don't like it to sound cocky or arrogant or anything like that, but I think if you're just trying to beat a guy that's one or two seconds quicker, then the names on that list are pretty significant athletes and, and it seems crazy to think that he might be trying to beat some of those names, but I mean that's got to be what he's got to try and do now and I think that's what he wants to do. And that's going to be really challenging 'cause they're elite international pros and yeah. But yeah, I think he, I think he'll, yeah, he'll be running to give it a crack.

Sam Ruthe

I really just want to win every race that I get into. I feel like after running 3:48 I might be getting towards that top level where I can get into the races that I want to get into and, you know, I love getting in races and not being the best because I just, that's just what I like about running is that means that you get in those situations where you can surprise everybody. Like at, at BU I was, had the slowest mile PB so being able to get into a race like that and then, you know, being able to beat everybody in the race is just such a good feeling.

Acknowledgements

FloTrack, FloSports