Another All-American effort by Bernard Lagat at Millrose Games

NEW YORK -- After a long night coaching the University of Arizona men and women at the Husky Invitational in Seattle, all James Li wanted to do was get some sleep on his red-eye flight to the East Coast.

Much to his chagrin, he was wired.

Rather than sit aimlessly waiting for fatigue to get the better of him, Li decided to be productive. He took out a pen and a long scrap of paper and began to plot out the ambitious men's 5000m race plan for Bernard Lagat and Lawi Lalang and Stephen Sambu, two of his collegiate standouts.

"I couldn't sleep so I took out a piece of paper and worked out every lap and the details," Li said. "I wrote down how I think it will go from the beginning, what pace it could go, where they could slow down a little bit, where they had to pick it up."

At the bottom of his sheet of paper was the time 13:07.00. If not for the fact that he was wide awake you could say that Li couldn't have dreamed it up any better.

The 37-year-old Lagat added to his legend with another incredible performance, taking control of the 5000m with six laps to go and blazing his way to victory in 13:07.15, lowering the American record in a race that saw three records tumble at the Millrose Games at The Armory.

Lagat, who was concerned about his training leading up to the meet, still shattered the previous mark of 13:11.44 set last year by Galen Rupp. Lalang finished second in 13:08.28 taking nearly 10 seconds off Rupp's collegiate record of 13:18.12 set in 2009. Edward Cheserek, a Kenyan running for St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J., finished eighth in 13:57.04 to shatter the national high school record of 14:06.78 set by Lukas Verzbicas in 2011.

"I'm pleased that the aim of coming here has been achieved," Lagat said. "I came here with one aim and that was to break the American record. I felt very strong coming in. Last week was a little tough for me in terms of training. When I came here for the mile race at Madison Square Garden I think I picked up something on the airplane and I didn't feel good that week so I rested a lot. Coach Li said, ‘Let's rest up a bit.'"

If there is one thing Lagat will never do that is doubt the wisdom of Li, who has been his coach since his collegiate days at Washington State. Heck, even Lalang is a believer after just one year.

"When I came here, we had run a couple long runs and he said to me, ‘By the end of the year you can run 13:30,'" Lalang said. "And by the end of the year I ran 13:30. Unbelievable. So when he told me I could run under 13:10, I believed it."

The venerable coach mapped out a strategy that essentially boiled down to Lagat needing to click off 31-second laps to maintain record pace. True to plan, Lagat received the requisite pacing from Bolota Asmerom and Ben Bruce. When those two stepped off the track, Lalang and Sambu pushed the tempo. With 1200 meters to go, Lagat took control of his own fate, moving ahead of his training partners into the lead. He and Lalang gapped Sambu with three laps remaining.

With 300 meters to go, Lagat began to open up his stride and by the bell he had pulled away from Lalang. On the backstretch, Lagat really turned on the burners and blasted the rest of the way around the track as the raucous crowd rose to its feet.

"It was executed so well with the guys in front of me," Lagat said. "It was about teamwork tonight because we all wanted the same thing and that was those records. And we cannot do these races without the fans. You hear all the people shouting and it brings a lot of energy."

The crowd remained on its feet to encourage Cheserek, a runner who is used to dominating races. On this night, the lapper got lapped, but that hardly mattered to the soft-spoken teenager.

"It was hard," Cheserek said. "To me, it was great to run a race with these guys."

Lagat was impressed with his younger counterparts.

"Those are impressive times," he said. "I can tell you right now that during my freshman year I did not even run the 5000m. When I did run the 5000m, I was doing 13:46 at Mt SAC and I was a junior. To have Lawi run 13:08 tells me something about the talent, the courage that he has. He is so confident right now. He's a guy that is not intimidated. And I like Cheserek. I told him, ‘I like the way you handle yourself.' He was still making jokes over here after warm-up and I like that because I am like that too. He exudes confidence, and I like that."

Lagat could have been well within his right to have bittersweet feelings on the evening. While he was reclaiming the American record in the 5000m here, Rupp was taking down his two-mile record at the USA Track & Field Classic in Arkansas, running 8:09.72. But in true Lagat fashion, he had nothing but praise for Rupp afterward.

"I broke his record and he broke my record," Lagat said. "That is healthy for this sport in America. I am so proud of Galen Rupp. I'm going to tweet it right now, ‘Hey good job buddy.'"

Nor was Lagat sobered by the blistering results from the PSD Bank Meeting in Dusseldorf earlier in the day, where four men ran faster than he did here, including Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya, who won that race in a world-leading 12:58.67.

"I knew about it, but you know something? I always keep it realistic," Lagat said. "I didn't even want to think about me running 13:05 or 13:0-something. A few weeks ago I said that I felt like I was in 13:05 strength and that is correct.

"I am not going to tell myself that I am in 12:57 shape when I am not. Today, I knew those guys would have the world lead even coming out of tonight. I didn't want to focus on that. I wanted to run a race that I could handle and I handled this one tonight."