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If you want to know when Noah Droddy means business, check his hair.

On an easy run or the early laps of a hard workout, the Boulder runner’s famously long locks—he hasn’t cut them in three years—stay secured in a man-bun or tucked all the way up in his trucker hat.

When it comes time for the last repeat or on race day, he lets them loose. A hat keeps them out of his face, but the rhythmic slapping of strands on his back unleashes an animal instinct. 

“It’s kind of a mental trick,” he told Runner’s World. “I’m just like, ‘All right, the hair is flowing, it’s uninhibited, and I’m just going to run like a demon.’”

His boldness paid off at the USATF 10 Mile Championships in Minneapolis on October 9. Droddy ran aggressively, hair streaming, taking the lead around mile seven. 

Only Sam Chelanga, who holds the NCAA 10,000-meter record of 27:08.49, passed him in the last half mile to win in 47:25. Droddy tried to surge again, but he couldn’t quite catch up. He placed second in 47:28.

Droddy’s unconventional looks may have been what propelled him to the top of the running world’s Twitter streams during the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer. When he showed up on TV next to clean-cut competitors like Galen Rupp and Ben True, many wondered how he’d “crashed” the 10,000-meter race.

But it’s his solid and dramatically improving performances that show he’s more than a meme. He not only belongs on the starting line next to names like Chelanga and Tim Ritchie. On a good day, he might just beat them.

Related: Meet the Mustachioed, Beer-Drinking “Hero” Who Crashed the Trials 10K

“He doesn’t have the most touted résumé, but he knows how to compete really well,” said Richard Hansen, Droddy’s coach at the Boulder-based Roots Running Project. “If he puts himself in a good position and he races smart, and he’s not afraid when it comes to actually being able to grind it out, he can race with anybody.”

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For the most part, the past year has exceeded Droddy’s wildest dreams. Last November, the former DePauw University runner moved from Indianapolis to Boulder to join Roots Running Project. The upstart group has no funding but a passion for developing under appreciated runners, those with, in Hansen’s words, “a chip on their shoulders.”

Since then, Droddy dropped his half marathon time from 68 minutes to 64:08, qualifying for the Olympic Trials Marathon. He ran his fastest 10,000 meters in 28:22 at the Portland Track Festival in June, earning his spot at the track trials. 

Setting aside the enormous amount of unanticipated publicity, his race did not go well. He finished dead last with a 31:02.99, an experience he called a “gut-buster.” “I really wanted to run well there,” he said. 

Though a DNF might have looked better on paper, he remained determined to finish. “Only 25 guys get to that start line every four years; I would hope to be back again but I can’t say that for sure,” he said. “My parents were up in the stands. I wasn’t going to drop out, I was going to run every lap.”

Beside, if he’d bailed, he might not have gone viral. “Honestly, most of my TV coverage came from being lapped,” he said. 

The next day, Droddy went back to Hayward Field and sat in the stands by himself. He didn’t want to make excuses for his performances. But he knew he needed to move on.

“I tried to center myself a little bit and appreciate how far I’d come,” he said. “The trials was not an end for me. God, this sounds so cliché, but it was really like a beginning to what I thought I could accomplish.”

He took a few weeks off to unwind. He hiked with non-running friends, let the hype die down a bit. 

“The amount of media exposure he had gotten after track—I think was exciting for him, but also emotionally unexpected and a little bit draining,” Hansen said. “For him to turn around and start focusing on fall, he wasn’t ready to do that right away.”

By September, Droddy felt prepared to unfurl his hair and channel that inner rage. He resumed the rigorous training cycle that Roots Running espouses. He ran up to 80-mile weeks, each one with five hard workouts and an up-tempo long run. 

He didn’t have any other races between the Trials and the 10-miler. So to gauge his fitness, Hansen had him run a two-mile time trial, a workout Droddy used to run in college. 

The result—an 8:44, at altitude—gave Droddy and Hansen confidence of his fitness heading into the race. After reviewing the field, they believed he could place in the top five or six.

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Often, Droddy travels to races and meets with Hansen and fellow Roots runner Alia Gray, who are engaged. In fact, at the trials, he slept on a cot in their hotel room. 

But Gray was competing in the Chicago Marathon the same day as the 10-mile race. (She ended up finishing 10^th, with a personal-best 2:34:00.) So Droddy went with his teammate Mara Olson, who finished fifth in the women’s race in Minneapolis in 54:18.

Hansen had the Minneapolis race streaming on his phone as he ran from point to point on the Chicago course. At one point, he turned it off to run faster.

When he shut it down, there was a lead pack of about 30 men. When he picked it back up, Droddy was leading, followed only by Chelanga and Ritchie, a 61-minute half marathoner and assistant cross country and track coach at Boston College. Ritchie eventually finished third in 47:33.

The front-running tactic marked an evolution in Droddy’s development, Hansen said. “He wasn’t sitting back and waiting and just hoping that other guys would drop off; he was forcing guys to go with him,” Hansen said. “Those that couldn’t ended up fading away.”

Immediately after the race, Droddy called the result “life-changing,” an assessment he said held upon further consideration. “Knowing that on my best day I can be as good as anybody in those fields—that is huge,” he said.

He’ll carry that confidence into three more races in the next few months. At the Big Sur Half Marathon on November 13, he’ll compete against Olympic marathoner Jared Ward and two-time world championships marathon team member Jeffrey Eggleston. His goal there: to improve his half marathon time closer to 63 minutes, maybe even aim for the win again.

Then, he’ll join a Roots Running team at the National Club Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in December before setting his sights on yet another PR at the Houston Half Marathon on January 17.

The success at the 10-mile race has shifted his situation in other ways, too. The $10,000 prize purse takes him one step closer to making a living as a runner (right now, he works two jobs, lives with three roommates, and sleeps on the floor on a twin mattress Hansen and Gray gave him). He’s about to sign with an agent, which can open the doors to sponsorships and better race placement.

And though he couldn’t quite believe it when Gray—who has impressive tresses herself—told him a women’s salon visit typically runs at least $50, he also might use some of that cash to spring for a haircut. But don’t worry, internet—just a trim, to rid himself of the split ends.