Ryan Snellen
Snellened
Question: Have you ever been Snellened?
Answer: YES!
Born and raised in the metropolis that is Hodgenville, Kentucky, Ryan Snellen came into this world ready to run. He was raised on a dairy farm, where he learned how to fix tractors and milk cows. In his early years he played soccer, but on the encouragement from his 5th grade coach, he decided to join the cross country team. In middle school and first two years of high school, Ryan would split his athletic duties between cross country, soccer, and track. By his junior year at Central Hardin, however, Ryan began doing well at various running meets, and thus started his domination in the sport of long distance running.
His running ability was so great out of high school that he landed an athletic scholarship to Belmont University. During his 1st year of college, Ryan almost did not make the varsity squad. But then, during the conference cross country meet that year, Ryan won 4th overall, which caused Belmont University to win their first ever Atlantic Sun Conference title in cross country. Over his years at Belmont he continued to do well, including making it to the NCAA Division I Cross Country meet as an individual runner, which by the way they only take four non-team runners in the entire country. Ryan says that one of his biggest moment happened during his senior year when he ran a 5K at Stanford University in 14:01. He says it was at that moment he realized that his running career was far from over.
He graduated from Belmont in 2007, and not long after that began working at Fleet Feet. At the store Ryan “makes dreams come true…one foot at a time.” Working at the store has allowed him to continue his focus on his running career. Just this last year he ran at the Portland, Oregon track festival, and took 4th place in the 5K race, with a time of 13:57:68. By the way, he beat Olympic runner Adam Goucher.
So what’s next for Ryan Snellen? Well, besides dominating most every race in Nashville and surrounding Southeastern area, and running 95 miles a week to keep up his training regiment, he is also engaged to Lauren Peck. You might have seen their famous “finish line” proposal on Good Morning America or the Today Show, or you can watch it here:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7047811
East Nasty wishes all the luck to Ryan Snellen and his running career. I mean how great would it be if he got to go to the Olympics, supporting both Team USA and Team East Nasty!