2025 Summer Mileage, August 5, 2025, Week 5, Day 2, Tuesday is for the hills, and the story of Donavan Brazier

2025 Summer Mileage, Week 5, Day 2, August 5, 2025, easy day, focus is on Donavan Brazier! 

Tuesday, warm up, 60 minute hill run, 10 x 2 minute hill charges, 5 x 1 minute hill charges, 5x 30 second hill charges, cooldown

Our focus athlete, Donavan Brazier, how he came back from the abyss 

Donavan Brazier has had his ups and downs in his career, as do all athletes. Being an athlete in track and field, is about evolution. Evolution, as you learned in the first Jurassic Park movie, is not a straight line, it is terriby disruptive. Donavan Brazier was a total star in high school, in the 800m and cross country. And he did it off no mileage! Donavan Brazier ran 1:47 for the 800 meters, in high school.

At Texas A & M, Donavan Brazier developed quickly. He was hurt prior to the NCAA Indoors, then, won the NCAA and broke the 800m/880y record set exactly fifty years prior, on the exact day, by one Jim Ryun. I recall an interview that winter, where Donavan told me that he did not do a long run over 7 miles! I was shocked! That year, 2016, Donavan Brazier did not qualify for the Olympics. And fans dissed him.

Donavan went pro, running for NIKE and being coached by Peter Julian. That relationship worked for many years, and the highlight was the 2019 World Champs in Doha, Qatar. I was in Doha that day and remember Donavan just flying from the 500 meter mark, and no one could touch him. Donavan Brazier had, over those three years with Pete, developed into a brilliant athlete.

Donavan Brazier started having issues in 2020 and while he raced through 2022, he was dealing with many physical issues, which drained him mentally and spiritually.

I interviewed Donavan Brazier in the fall of 2023, and he was thoughtful, but one could tell he was hoping to get back, he just could not put a date on it. That must have been frustrating.

After his surgery, Donavan Brazier joined Craig Engels, his training partner, and they moved to San Luis Obispo, CA to be coached by Craig’s college coach, Ryan Van Hoy.

It worked, and in June 2025, after two years of frustration, Donavan opened with a 1:44 for the 800m in Nashville. He then went to Portland, for the Portland Track Classic, and ran 1:43.8. A month later, at London DL, Donavan ran 1:43.08.

In that insane 800m final on Sunday, August 3, Donavan Brazier ran through…