From NCAA Champion to NYC Debut: Charles Hicks on Switching Flags, Swoosh TC, and Building for 26.2
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.9 • 822 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amid a pro reset in Eugene and a new flag next to his name, Charles Hicks is aiming his firepower at the marathon.
Stanford’s first NCAA individual cross-country champion turned Nike pro joins the show amidst a change. He’s shifting his firepower to the roads and is making his marathon debut at the TCS New York City Marathon on November 2, 2025.
He trains in Eugene with Nike’s Swoosh TC (launched Feb. 7, 2025) and has been based there since 2023. He’s also fresh off a USATF 10 Mile title in Washington, D.C., set in course-record time.
On the track, you’ve seen the range: 13:09 indoors for 5k and 27:33 for 10k at “The Ten.” Now, he’s translating that speed into 26.2 on one of the world’s toughest courses.
He’s also a two-time European U23 XC champion (’21 Dublin, ’22 Turin) and the European U23 5000m champion (’23 Espoo).
And there’s a timely wrinkle: World Athletics now lists him under the United States after switching from GBR, opening fresh conversations about U.S. teams and majors.
Charles also co-founded Scholarly, a platform that links applicants with successful students’ essays and insights. Between the racetrack and the startup world, he’s clearly on the rise.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I just have to tell you that every single facet of training and competing and, you know, mentality spec that marathon training is thrown to me so far has just been by far my favorite aspects of the sport. |
| 0:17.2 | Kind of feels like I'm in cross country season every season again dialed to 11 of just |
| 0:22.1 | you know how bad do you really want it how much are you willing to hurt how long are you |
| 0:25.5 | willing to be out there every day how effectively can you recover all of these factors that |
| 0:30.8 | I feel like I'm just juggling that kind of coalesces into this really gratifying experience of just effort and, you know, |
| 0:39.9 | intelligence as an athlete that I really value. |
| 0:51.6 | That was Charles Hicks back today on the running effect podcast. Charles is an NCAA champion. |
| 0:56.6 | He's also a two-time European U-23 XC champion and the European U23 5,000 meter champion. |
| 1:03.2 | But now he's reping the red, white, and blue, which we actually dive into great detail about in today's conversation, |
| 1:09.1 | right ahead of his marathon debut at the TCS New York |
| 1:12.1 | City Marathon on November 2nd, 2025. Charles always brings such wisdom and clarity to high |
| 1:19.7 | performance running, high performance living. Charles distills his best wisdom and insights from |
| 1:24.7 | chasing glory, chasing excellence within this act of running. I really |
| 1:29.2 | enjoyed this conversation with him. We dive into his years as a professional runner, his decision |
| 1:33.7 | to switch countries from representing Great Britain to representing the United States of America. |
| 1:39.4 | We talk about his transition to the marathon, his expectations for that race, potential duels |
| 1:44.0 | with Connemans in the future leading to rep the red, his expectations for that race, potential duels with Connemans |
| 1:44.7 | in the future leading to rep the red, white, and blue on the big stage in the marathon and so |
| 1:49.7 | many other insights. Really enjoyed this conversation. Charles is the man. A lot of funny |
| 1:53.8 | banter as well as deep philosophy and wisdom, as you would expect from a Stanford grad. |
| 1:58.4 | Really appreciate you guys. Taking time out of your busy life to listen to this, |
| 2:01.6 | I don't take that for granted, |
... |
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