Alaska's fastest miler just got faster.
Kodiak's Trevor Dunbar, the only Alaska runner to ever crack the four-minute barrier in the mile, delivered a personal-record 3:55.54 in a Boston-area meet Thursday night to slash 1.65 seconds off his previous best for the distance.
Dunbar, 26, finished fifth at the Adrian Martinez Classic in Concord and eclipsed the 3:57.19 he clocked in Cork, Ireland, in July 2014.
"That's sweet," Dunbar said by cellphone. "I don't do the mile too often. Any day you get a PR is a good day."
Trevor Dunbar @DunbarTrevor @hudsonelite 6th 30:34 10K @OregonTF #GoDucks @USATF #USATF @iaaforg #IAAF @BendOregonXC #usatfXC 04 Feb 2017 pic.twitter.com/Ujr6oFBOmg
— #ncaaTF June 7-10 (@TaFphoto) February 6, 2017
Dunbar's personal-best mile came less than two weeks after he finished third in a 3,000-meter race at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston in 7:52.98, a race in which he covered his final 400 meters in 56 seconds.
Dunbar said that race and Thursday's performance make him optimistic about a 5,000-meter race — the distance he calls "my baby" — he is scheduled to run June 11 at the Portland Track Festival in Oregon.
"I think everything is aligned to have a breakthrough there," Dunbar said. "It tells me that I'm fit and ready to go."
The former University of Oregon All-America still needs to generate a qualifying time of at least 13:32.00 in the 5,000 to qualify for that event in the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Sacramento later this month.
Dunbar's PR is 13:26.90. He believes his two recent performances indicate he is capable of running in sub-13:20 territory in Portland next week.
"Both of the races give me a lot of confidence that I can run a PR," he said.
Dunbar, who endured injuries in 2015 and 2016, last year moved from Eugene, Oregon, to Boulder, Colorado, which is his training base.
"I wanted to make a change for my life," Dunbar said. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep racing or get into coaching. If my body cooperated and I'm healthy, I wanted to give it one last shot."
Dunbar said he's remained injury-free since moving to Colorado. He finished sixth at the U.S. Cross Country Championships last February in Bend, Oregon, and qualified for the world championships in Uganda, where he was a last-minute scratch with illness.