By placing third in June’s 5,000m national championships in a PR of 13:22.18, Evan Jager earned a provisional spot on the U.S. team for the world championships, which start on Saturday, Aug. 15 in Berlin. Jager’s status switched from provisional to definite when his training partner, national champion Matt Tegenkamp, ran well under the worlds “A” standard in July, thereby allowing the U.S. to field a full team of four. (As defending world champion, Bernard Lagat received automatic entry into the race.) Jager took the unusual step of turning pro before age 20 so that he could continue to train under Jerry Schumacher, his former coach at the University of Wisconsin who relocated his training group to Portland, Ore. earlier this year.Running Times: After so recently leaving high school, how is the transition to a major running community like the Nike campus in Portland?
Evan Jager: I love training on Nike's campus. They have pretty much everything you could ask for as an athlete. The track is almost completely surrounded by trees, even on the inside of the track, which makes workouts a lot more manageable on windy days. There is also a really big grass field on campus where we do longer repeats. I don't really find it very shocking for me to be doing a lot of my training in a big running community. I guess I don't really notice that big of a difference from high school or college to now.
Can you talk some about the advantages and disadvantages of staying in college vs. turning pro?
EJ: The advantages for myself turning pro opposed to staying in college completely outweigh the disadvantages. Some of the advantages I have now would be the ability to train with world-class athletes on a day-to-day basis. I also am able to prepare myself to peak for the U.S. championships without having to worry about being on top of my game for NCAA conference, regionals and nationals, then somehow be ready to go again when the U.S. championships come around after all of those races. Being out in Portland, I also have almost unlimited resources at my fingertips to help keep me healthy and able to train. The disadvantages that came along with turning pro were leaving all of my friends and teammates from Wisconsin and my hometown back in the Midwest.
You’ve been on the move for the past few months – from Wisconsin, to Portland and the Oregon Track Club and then to Europe. How do you handle all of that?
EJ: I would say the biggest transition I've had to make so far was moving across the country to Portland. Joining the OTC didn't really take too much getting used to. Basically, the only thing I had to do there was put on a different top and shorts when I went out to race. Europe has been a ton of fun so far and I guess I've just been enjoying this stage of my life more than "transitioning" into it so I've just been having fun. All in all, I think I've handled everything that has been thrown at me this past year so well because I really enjoy what I do.
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