Craig Virgin is an accomplished long distance runner, excelling in cross-country, track and road racing, and has been rated national or world class for most of his open career.

Virgin was born in Belleville, Illinois on August 2, 1955, and raised on his family’s farm near Lebanon, Illinois. He’s a legend in Illinois High School track and cross-country circles, where he held the two-mile national high school record for many years. His time of 8:40.9 still stands as the fastest time ever recorded in an all high school race.

In college at the University of Illinois, Virgin overcame injuries and illnesses to win nine Big 10 Championships, an NCAA Championship, and qualified for his first US Olympic Team.

Despite having been born with a congenital urological disease, Virgin never quit trying his hardest, even when in 1994 his right kidney was removed. He’s said that the discomforts he endured as a youth were a lesson teaching him to separate himself from pain. And unfortunately, in 1997, that lesson became invaluable as Virgin recovered from a head-on car collision where he almost died from his injuries. After physical therapy and eight operations in the two years following the accident, Virgin began running again.

A three-time Olympian in the 10,000 meters, the 1976 NCAA Cross-Country Champion, a seven-time US record-holder in road and track, and the two-time winner of the World Cross-Country Championships, Virgin has a running resume to be proud of. He became the first and only American male to win the I.A.A.F. World Cross-Country championship in 1980. Virgin has also won many of the major sub-marathon races in the US.

Virgin retired from serious competitive running in January 1992 after a 23-year career of competition in cross-country, track and road racing. He is the president and founder of Front Runner Inc., a sports marketing company.