Josh Moen, 27, of Team USA Minnesota had a pitched battle with three-time Olympian Abdi Abdirahman at the USA 10 Mile Championships in Minneapolis on October 4 and finished just three seconds behind "Abdi" in second place with a 46:38. The two men will see each other again at the ING New York City Marathon, which is serving as the USA Men's Marathon Championships on November 1. It will be just the second marathon for Moen, who ran 2:23:16 in a somewhat moist 2008 Twin Cities Marathon. Moen was sixth in the USA 7 Mile in Davenport, Iowa on July 25 in 33:36. He joined Team USA Minnesota in August of 2008 and has posted personal track bests of 13:35.73 for 5000 meters and 28:26.26 for 10,000 in 2009. Moen has been on three U.S. teams at the Chiba Ekiden in Japan. He was a five-time NCAA Division III champion while at Wartburg College in Iowa - twice in cross country, twice in the 5000, and once in the 10,000. Before heading to New York, Moen will do the Race for Oronia 5K on October 17 at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.That ten-miler must be the performance of a career for you. Did you have any idea, going in, that you'd moved up to this level?
Josh Moen: I had some really good workouts the past few weeks in this marathon segment (training for New York City) that I've never been able to touch before. We'd go out and do threshold stuff and I'd just be cruising along feeling good. So I knew I was pretty fit going into the ten-mile, but I didn't know I was quite that fit.
As you mentioned, you were in the midst of your marathon training. Did you back off your training a little bit going into the ten-mile?
JM: Yeah, I brought the mileage down to about 90 (miles a week) from about 120.
So as the race unfolded, you're obviously with Abdi in the very beginning, and then in the later miles, you're still with Abdi.
JM: Yeah, it was exciting. There was a group and then at about two miles, there's a pretty large hill as you climb away from the river and that's where I started pressing the pace a little bit, and Abdi was the only one who went with me. So at that point, it was just us, and it kind of turned into a mano-a-mano type race where he'd look at me and throw a surge in and try and break me, and I kind of take that personally if someone does that. I felt "I can't let him do that," and I'd run with him and then I'd surge back on him, too. It turned into one of those matches, I guess.
This must be a first-in-a-lifetime experience, to be in a major championship roadrace and suddenly be duking it out with a three-time Olympian.
JM: No, I haven't had anything quite like it. I've always told people that success breeds success, so if I'm running really well, and I know I am, I usually tend to run better. You kind of get fired up. I feed off it, and that's the situation that happened.
Now, going into New York, are you back up to some heavy weeks, maybe even more before the ten-miler?
JM: In general, we're bringing the mileage down. Workouts are kind of staying the same. Last week, Jason (Lehmkuhle) and I went out and ran 28 miles together. And then we have our last big workout tomorrow for the marathon. We're kind of scaling back on everything. I know we're going to do 12 and a half miles at marathon pace, but I don't know if we're going to break it up (into segments).
You've been with Team USA Minnesota for awhile. But there was a period when you went out on your own. Was that for about a year?
JM: Yeah, I lived with my folks for about a year in Fairbank, Iowa.
Were you thinking for sure you were going to try to get another good running situation, or were you thinking it might be over? What were you thinking?
JM: I left Hansons and I thought I could do it on my own. I went home and it's a very small town. There are about 1,000 people who live there. If I leave my dad's house, it takes me about two minutes and I'm out in the country on gravel. So it's good training for most of the year, but when the winter comes, the wind and the cold kill you. It got demoralizing for awhile and I was like "I've got to get out of this I'm just going to stagnate here." So I called up Pat Goodwin (of Team USA Minnesota) and made the move into Minneapolis.
Were you working while you were in Iowa?
JM: I was substitute teaching.
And in Minnesota, do you do anything to supplement your running income?JM: I am an assistant manager at TC Running Company. It's a running store. I'm there between 25 and 30 hours a week.
Are your workouts mainly with Jason Lehmkuhle at this point?
JM: Yeah, they're exclusively with Jason. We usually start around 8:00 or 8:30 (in the morning), relatively early, I guess. I'll run when I get off work, a much easier run.
Your marathon experience thus far is limited to one attempt, a 2:23 in Twin Cities. There were some weather problems, but otherwise, did you think you were ready?
JM: I felt like I was ready for the marathon at the time, but I look back at my training logs and my mentality going into it, and I overprepared to the max. Basically. I was overcooked.
And you had just joined Team USA Minnesota, so that was mainly based on work you'd done on your own, right?
JM: Right, yeah.
You're not the only good runner to come from Wartburg. It's obviously one of the very successful Division III programs. When you came out of high school, did you have any temptation to go to a bigger program, or were you pretty sure that was going to be a good fit for you?
JM: I was positive on Wartburg. When I was in high school, I was a 10:04 two-miler. That was good as I was, and I was only got recruited by one school, and that was Wartburg. That was the only one that expressed any interest whatsoever, and it was about a half-hour away from where I lived and had good academics and it just made sense.
I'm more familiar with a whole string of good small schools in Ohio, like Marietta, those kinds of places. Was your conference all small Iowa schools?
JM: Yeah, just like the OAC in Ohio. Ours is called the Iowa Conference. They're all tiny.
So you didn't have to travel very much until the nationals came around.
JM: Yeah, exactly. If we went to a meet or something, we never had to stay the night. We'd just get up early and drive there.
Was one of the schools your archrival in particular?
JM: Luther College. That's in Decorah, Iowa. You can pretty much spit and hit Minnesota, it's so close.
In your second marathon, knowing how well you did in the ten-miler, what are you hoping for in New York City?
JM: I've thought a lot about this. The (ten-mile) race went so well, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. I originally wanted to run 2:16 or 2:17. Now, around 2:12 to 2:14 is what I want to look at.
ShareThis