It finally started to hit Nate Jenkins last Sunday. On the ride to Colorado Springs, Colo., from the Denver airport, he was engaged in a riveting conversation about training with legendary coach Bob Larsen.The same Bob Larsen who advises USA Running coach Terrence Mahon. The same Bob Larsen who has coached Meb Keflezighi, at UCLA and beyond. “Heck, he helped coach Meb to the silver medal in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics,” Jenkins said.
The call Jenkins got last month from USA Track and Field was indeed true — the former Narragansett Regional High standout is about to represent Team USA for the first time, in the marathon at the IAAF World Championships in August in Berlin.
Jenkins was selected by virtue of his impressive seventh-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials back in November 2007 in New York’s Central Park, where he posted a personal best of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 56 seconds. “This is a very unique experience,” said Jenkins, who was in Colorado Springs Sunday through Tuesday for a USATF marathon team summit. “You run well in a race, fine. Then, after a while, you wake up and find something new on your résumé and almost don’t know how you got it.”
The summit brought together Jenkins and teammates Dan Browne, Justin Young, Fernando Cabada and Matt Gabrielson formally for the first time, for meetings that covered preparations for the course and possible weather, discussion on diet and fluid intake on race day, and included team strategy sessions and training workouts. The women’s team was also on hand.
For the 28-year-old Jenkins, it was a quick trip back to Colorado Springs, where he trained in the high altitude this past March, April and May. Just last month, the Templeton native moved into an apartment on Lake Street in Brighton, where a quick right at the end of the street takes him on training runs past Boston College on the Newton hills of the Boston Marathon course. “I’m really enjoying the out and backs there on Comm Ave,” said Jenkins, who assists with the cross-country and track programs at UMass-Lowell, his alma mater.
Only a day after his selection to Team USA, Jenkins nearly suffered a disheartening setback. During a long, uphill workout in Colorado Springs, he felt a tightening in his lower back after apparently straining his sacroiliac. The injury was a hiccup in the training, but he’s building back up the mileage. “It’s annoying, but I’m not in a situation that I’m up against the wall,” said Jenkins, who ran 93 miles in the week leading up to the summit, about 110 last week, and is striving to increase to 130-160 miles over the next couple of weeks.Jenkins scheduled a pair of tuneup races before the trip to Europe. Yesterday, he finished 18th out of 2,824 runners (with a time of 20 minutes, 22 seconds) in the Steamboat Classic, a 4-miler in Peoria, Ill. On July 12, he’ll take in the Utica (N.Y.) Boilermaker, a 15-kilometer (9.4-mile) event.
The world championships are slated for Saturday, Aug. 22 (the women’s race runs the following day), so Jenkins will head for Germany nine days beforehand to adjust to the conditions and the six-hour time difference. “Actually, they say at that time in August could be in the 50- to 60-degree range, even with a noontime start,” he said.
With temperatures like that and a relatively flat course, conditions could be ripe for outstanding times. “I’d like to turn in a personal best, and hopefully a significant personal best,” Jenkins said. “I’d be satisfied any time to run anything under 2:15, 2:14,” he added. “I’d be absolutely thrilled to get into the 2:12, 2:11, 2:10 range.”
Jenkins is content with how he’s progressing, much like he was at this stage before the Olympic Trials two years ago. “Each week, there’s an improvement every day,” he said. “I’m almost in the exact same situation — a little banged-up, but really fit. I’m much, much fitter coming in right now.”
UMass-Lowell coach Gary Gardner and his wife, Caitlin, plan to be on hand in Berlin, and Jenkins’ girlfriend, Melissa Donais, also is considering making the trip.
Jenkins hates to “race, then run,” but he is flying home almost immediately after the world championships to keep his commitment to work the popular Foss Running Camp, which is directed by Blackstone-Millville Regional coaching legend Kevin Maloney. Jenkins is striving to be at the grounds in Strafford, N.H., by the following afternoon.
“I’m going to have to miss out on the post-race party and the German beer,” said Jenkins, who in recent years has offered unyielding support to the Narragansett program and its runners. “When I get a chance to do camps like this, I really enjoy it. If given the opportunity to return the favors that were afforded me, I take advantage of it.”
Thank you John Conceison of telegram.com!
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