The Story of Habtom Samuel’s Shoe

The most impressive performance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships may have been the University of New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel losing his left shoe before 5k and running more than half the race with one shoe and still finishing as runner-up to Graham Blanks in the men’s race.

This is the story of what happened to Samuel’s shoe.

LetsRun visitor and former DIII Academic All-American Paul Chellevold (he didn’t brag we looked it up ourselves:)) and his family found the shoe and “made it a goal to find him and give him back the piece of history.”

They tracked him down and gave him back the bloodied Nike prototype spike.

 Habtom was very pleased they report.

“Habtom was a very nice person and was gracious enough to take some pictures with us,” wrote Chellevold.

As for Habtom, he knew he had made the best of an unfortunate situation. “I can’t believe I finished number two (with one shoe), I’m so happy, but at the same time, I’m not happy. This was the perfect time to win. I’m really fit,” he said.