Max King competes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2008 Oregon Relays in late April.

Unfortunately for Max King, the Dining Hall Classic is not an Olympic event.

If it were, he would surely be headed to Beijing.

At the end of the season each fall, King and Cornell University’s other cross-country runners would go from dining hall to dining hall on the Ithaca, N.Y., campus, eating six meals and running a total of three miles in between food stops.

King won the event three consecutive years before his senior year in 2002, when he “pushed it too far.”

“If you throw up in a dining hall, you’re disqualified,” King recalls. “I had a little spurt — I hurled a little bit on the table. That was a blow to the ego.”

Now a six-year Bend resident, King has always had a penchant for the offbeat. Maybe that’s why he competes in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, an oft-ignored track-and-field event, which includes four barriers and a water jump on each lap of the track.

King, 28, will make what figures to be a long-shot bid for the Olympics in the event this week during the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials at Eugene’s Hayward Field. The steeplechase preliminaries are set for tonight, and the finals are scheduled for Saturday.

“I’ve always liked the steeplechase because it’s kind of the odd event out,” King says. “I’ve always been better at races where the pace is varied, like cross-country and road races. I was kind of meant to run the steeplechase.

“The fans enjoy it — especially the water jump, if anybody wrecks. It’s kind of like NASCAR. I just wish the steeplechase got a little more respect from track and field. I wish it was a more popular event, rather than just an odd event.”

After excelling in distance running at Crater High School, in Central Point, King was an All-American in the steeplechase at Cornell. He moved to Bend after college and took a job as a chemical engineer at Bend Research. Immersed in the Central Oregon lifestyle, King began trying new outdoor sports, including skiing, mountain biking, triathlon, cyclocross, and adventure racing.

But his love of running returned his focus to the sport. In May 2007 in Eugene, he ran the steeplechase in 8 minutes and 31.26 seconds at the Road to Eugene meet, which qualified him for the 2008 Olympic Trials.

For the last year and a half, King has been training in Eugene with the Oregon Track Club Elite, a running team that has sent 20 of its 23 current members to these trials. Three have already qualified for the Olympics, two of them in stunning fashion on Monday night.

King was in attendance when Nick Symmonds of OTC charged from behind in the final turn to win the 800-meter final as the Hayward Field-record crowd of 20,949 erupted. Andrew Wheating of the University of Oregon finished second, and Christian Smith of OTC dove at the finish line to take third. All three qualified for the Olympics in an Oregon sweep, perhaps the signature event of the trials thus far.

“It was pretty incredible,” King says. “It’s definitely inspiring, just watching them — especially Christian, who basically had no chance of making the final, let alone the Olympic team.

“It can be anybody’s day. It just has to be your day. In my own race, I feel I have a solid chance.”

King says he has watched the trials every night at Hayward Field since they began last Friday.

“It gets you worked up,” King notes. “The crowd is amazing — I’m hoping that helps, too. Having the whole stadium involved is pretty cool. I’d say most American athletes have never ran in an environment like this. It’s definitely the biggest crowd I’ve ever ran in front of.”

King says he will be disappointed if he fails to reach Saturday’s finals of the steeplechase. But he is not necessarily expecting to qualify for the Olympic team.

“I don’t want to say it’s a long shot,” King says. “It’s definitely possible, but it’s going to be tough to make. And I’d have to have pretty much the race of my life to do it — which is possible.

“The other goal I have is just to run faster than I ever have before,” he adds. “And have a good race, too. A lot of these races will go out kind of slow. Nobody wants to take the lead, and then it finishes with a sprint. So a lot of times you don’t necessarily have a chance to run fast, but you can still run a good race and not run a fast time.”

King has the 10th-best qualifying time among runners entered in the men’s steeplechase. Steve Slattery (8:15.69) of Lafayette, Colo., Brian Olinger (8:19:29) of Westerville, Ohio, and Aaron Aguayo (8:20.34) of Flagstaff, Ariz., make up the top three entries.

Provided they have met the Olympic-qualifying A standard of 8:24.60, the fastest three runners from Saturday’s steeplechase final will be named to the U.S. team for the Beijing Games.

King must finish in the top three and hit the A standard.

Tonight’s preliminaries include two heats of 12 runners. The top four from each heat, plus the next six fastest times, qualify for Saturday’s finals.

“I think he has a shot at making the finals, and you never know what’s going to happen in a race,” says Oregon Track Club Elite coach Frank Gagliano of King. “His goal is to make the final and finish as far up as he can. If he runs a great race he can make the Olympic team. He has to improve about eight seconds.

“He’s worked so hard and looked forward to it. It’s 7½ laps. It’s not that difficult to improve on your PR, if you’re ready to run.”

King has been based in Eugene for more than a year, but he has returned to Bend about every other weekend to see his wife, Dory King, and to check in at Bend Research, where he is still employed and where he plans to eventually resume working full time.

Max says the time away from his wife has not strained his marriage, but rather has strengthened it.

“I only see her once every two weeks, so we’re excited to see each other and it makes our time together a little more special,” he says. “It’s kind of nice. After this, we won’t take each other for granted. She was really supportive. She knew this was something that I had to do.”

Dory plans to be at Hayward Field tonight, cheering on her husband. But she admits she is looking forward to returning to their normal routine.

“We’ll have a whole cheering section for Max, and his parents will be there,” Dory says. “My parents are coming from New York.

“I’m glad that it’s going to be over soon. It’s tolerable for a short amount of time. Life with Max is never normal, but it’ll be nice to have our routine back.”

King also admits he will be glad when the trials are over. He says he has felt the burden of pressure over the last few months of training.

“It starts to really wear on you,” he says. “The mental pressure of knowing you have to think about running 24 hours a day can be really tough sometimes. You don’t have that outlet of work when you’re focused on your day job for eight hours a day. It makes it tough to think about it that much.”

The Oregon Track Club Elite is sponsored by Nike, which pays for the athletes’ housing, medical insurance, travel and gear, and gives them a small stipend.

In Eugene, King lives with two other members of the Oregon Track Club in an apartment near Autzen Stadium.

The OTC team members train together, often at Hayward Field. King will actually be competing this week against two of his teammates: Thomas Brooks of Eugene, who has the sixth-best trials-qualifying time in the steeplechase (8:27.34), and Lucas Meyer of Eugene, who is 19th on the list (8:36.31).

“For some reason, I have a bigger competitive drive to beat people that I know,” King says. “I compete better against my friends.

“I’d be disappointed if I didn’t make the finals. I SHOULD make the finals.”

No matter what happens, King plans to enjoy himself on the country’s ultimate track-and-field stage, in front of thousands of home-state fans.

“It’s cool to be at this level after so much hard work over the last 14, 15, 16 years,” King says.

“It’s going to be electric.”