Interview with Nate Jenkins

By Duncan Larkin

Nearly every running picture of 27- year-old Massachusetts native Nate Jenkins paints the same picture: a pained yet indomitable competitor either in the lead or desperately struggling to take it. These pictures hearken back to other pictures (grainier ones) of legends from Massachusetts’ storied running past--icons such as Johnny Kelley, Bill Rodgers, and Bob Hodge. On November 3, Jenkins will follow in the footsteps of these famous runners when he competes in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon in New York City.

Jenkins is a 2004 graduate of the University of Massachusetts—Lowell. There, he ran cross country and led his team to three NCAA Northeast regional titles. In 2003, he took first place at the Regional Championships and was selected as the NCAA Regional Division II Runner of the Year. After college Jenkins began running for Saucony. In 2007, he was selected as a Road Runners Club of America Roads Scholar

On a cold February day last year in Austin, Texas, Jenkins debuted in the marathon. There, he ran a blistering 2:15:28, which garnered him the “A” standard for the Olympic Trials. On October 7, he ran a 1:06:17 at the B.A.A. Half-Marathon, good for seventh overall and top American honors.

Jenkins currently lives in Lowell and is an assistant cross country and track coach at his alma mater.

MensRacing.com: It’s less than a month from the Olympic Marathon Trials. How are you feeling? How have your workouts been going?

Nate Jenkins: I think they are going pretty well. I was really behind getting started. I had mono this past winter so I started running again in early March. As far as my specific preparation is going, I had one hiccup. In August at the Falmouth Road Race my Achilles cramped and I thought I might have torn something. I ended up missing about four days. My active release therapist was able to get it to unlock and loosen up. Things have been good otherwise. I feel fit. In terms of the top-notch guys, I definitely would have liked to have come in 2:08 shape and try and run with them. But I feel that I’m the best shape in my life. I’ll play vulture and hang back and see what I can do.

MR: You debuted at Austin with a 2:15. Tell us about that experience.

NJ: There was an ice storm the night before. Ice and Texas don’t mix too well. They started us a half-hour late. Considering that there were like 247 car wrecks in the city of Austin that day, it gives you the feel for the kind of chaos that a little bit of ice can cause in the deep South. They sanded the course the night before. They don’t have sand trucks there; they literally had to have guys on the back of the truck shoveling it out. Running the marathon was like running on sand! The only place you had to run on it, though, was on the bridges. Honestly, it was a perfect day.

That course is very, very fast. It drops about as much as Boston does. There’s only one small hill. Instead of hitting Heartbreak Hill in Boston around mile 20-21, you hit the hill in Austin at mile 24. It’s a lot easier than at Boston. Boston starts to beat you up in the last 10K, whereas Austin did it in the last four miles; there’s a big difference there. At Austin, it ended up being a group of guys who were willing to run the same pace: Pat and Casey Moulton, myself, Josh Ordway, and Jim Jurcevich. We had a couple of groups running at the paces that we wanted to go out at. We also had guys that were running the half-marathon or who ended up fading back. There were a lot of people there who were willing to share the work. It was an absolutely perfect day for me and some other guys on a scorching-fast course.

MR: How do you feel now compared to the 2:15 shape then?

NJ: I feel I am much fitter than I was then. I’m a much better runner. I’m stronger. My preparation has been better. That being said, my question is how much fitter am I in comparison to the course that we are going to have to face. This is not a time-trial course. Having run it, I have a feel for what it will be like, but I only ran easy on it. I didn’t do any workouts on it, so it’s hard to know for sure. If I can PR, that would be really huge--even if it’s a one-second PR. I’m guessing that this course is probably two minutes slower.

MR: In light of this slower, tougher course, how do you think the race itself will unfold?

NJ: I think it’s going to go one of two ways. If one of the contenders wants the pace to be quick and lead the first half in 1:05, I think you’ll see the winner in the 2:10 range. But I think the top10 will end up being slower in that kind of race than if it goes like it did in the 1996 [Olympic Marathon] Trials, which had a course that was very similar to this one—consistently rolling, very, very tough. In the 1996 Trials, they went out in 1:07 with the exception of [Paul] Zimmerman, who everyone let go, and then they came back in 1:05. I think if you have a race like that, the winner will only run 2:12, but you’ll see more guys survive with a 2:14-2:15 to get in the top 10. Whereas, if it starts out hammering, guys have to make choices quickly: Do I want to gamble and go with the lead or do I want to sit back? If you honestly think you have a chance to make the team, you have to go with the leaders. There are too many good guys.

MR: Brian Sell surprised the running world in the 2004 Trials by taking the lead for the majority of the marathon. You just mentioned your take on the course strategy. Still, do you think that on this course with this field someone could apply this same front-running strategy and ultimately prevail?

NJ: I guess it depends on your fitness. The problem is that most guys who run at this level for fun are aggressive by nature, and if you are going to do it properly you’ve got to be kind of laid back. Way back in the day, Frank Shorter used to run great races from the front, but he was able to control himself and continue a steady effort. Coming into this race, if I thought I were in 2:10 shape and not 2:12 shape and the race did go out slowly, I would consider that kind of move. The only thing is, let’s say you try to run five-minute miles and you go through 10 miles in 50 minutes. It becomes real easy from between 10 and 20 miles to accidentally drop a 4:50 [per mile pace] and really kill yourself by letting the adrenaline get to you. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life, but I’ve had some hiccups. But like a Chad Johnson or a Mike Reneau, or a Jacob Frey—any of these guys—it really wouldn’t be a bad idea to try and make a move. Honestly, if you can run 2:11, no one is going to run you down if they go out a minute slower than you. I could be wrong about that. There’s some phenomenal talent out there. As for me, I don’t have a problem leading, but it’s going to have to be pretty slow if I’m taking the lead. If they are going out at 1:06:30 or 1:07:00, then I’ll probably go out with them—depending on conditions and how I feel. I doubt they are going to go out that slow. I don’t think I’d make a move like Sell’s, but I think it would be a good idea if you were ready to do it.

MR: You mentioned your struggle with injuries. In your blog, you write about the large role that sports medicine plays in your running career. If you look at top-tier marathoners and compare them to yourself, you appear to have a stockier build. Do you think that build contributes to your rate of injury?

NJ: I definitely think there could be some truth in that. I’m definitely a heavy guy. I’m thin now—sitting at 160 pounds. For me, that’s really thin.

MR: Is 160 pounds the lightest you’ve been?

NJ: No, but it’s in the ballpark. The last few years, I’ve been much lighter than I’ve been in the past. When I ran 2:15 in Austin, I was around 165 pounds. I had gotten down to 151-152 a couple of times and I was at that when I caught mono. For me, mono was like a horrible sore throat. I couldn’t eat for a few days. So that’s how I got so low. Physical therapists have told me in the past that if I weighed less, I’d have fewer injuries. My form has smoothed out, but I’m not the smoothest guy. The biggest thing is that I was hurt a lot in college. I think injuries lead to other injuries. If you get hurt and you try to run through it, you tend to favor different muscles. And if you take time off, you take significant time off. Your small muscles weaken a lot. Cardiovascularly, you come back much quicker than muscularly. When you come back, you can overwhelm your muscular-skeletal system easily and that can lead to injury. You feel good, but yet your muscles aren’t recovering. It’s easy to get hurt. I very rarely have new problems—it’s just the same thing creeping up. There’s a lot of scar tissue from me basically being an idiot in college.

MR: What kind of mileage are you running?

NJ: There’s a lot of variety in my mileage, but when things are going well, I’m consistently in the 140 [miles per week] range. I’ve been up and down a little bit more this season just because of where I place races. I don’t mind racing off a 140-mile week if the race is low key. But if it’s a serious race then I back off. I’ll have a stretch where I build up, then race, then back off, then race—that kind of schedule. For example, I had three or four weeks of 130 or 140 miles and then I backed off and ran 100 [miles]. This week after recovering from the B.A.A. Half-Marathon, I’ll only run 110.

MR: How do you approach those high-mileage weeks? How do you break up 20-mile days?.

NJ: Nowadays what I do, I run a nine-mile/eight-mile double. The longer run will be done at a quicker pace and the shorter run will be done very slowly—anything from 7:00 to 8:30-per mile pace. When I’m doing what I call base training, I’ll have one easy day and one hard day. During marathon prep, I’ll switch it up with two easy days to each hard day. During my base period, a hard day would be something like a 10K threshold run at half-marathon goal pace or maybe a 20K threshold run at 90-95 percent marathon pace—something like that. The workouts are always an aerobic threshold-type of workout. They always have some aerobic component to them.

Once I get into marathon prep, the workouts are almost always keyed on marathon pace. They are repeats of 3 to 5 miles at marathon pace or a steady run at marathon pace or, like tomorrow, I’m doing a progression run where I’ll warm up a mile or two and then do nine miles at 6:00-per mile pace and then do like 5K accelerating up to half-marathon pace then relaxing back to 6:00 pace for three to four miles and then do marathon pace for six to seven miles. After that, I relax a bit and then ramp back up and then see how hard I can go—race simulation type stuff.

A lot of my workouts can be long ones, like 24 miles. My last workout, I did seven miles at marathon pace, then one mile of recovery then five miles at marathon pace. But between warm-up and cool-down, it ends up being a 17- to 18-mile run. Then in the afternoon, I’ll do some short hill repeats which will be six to eight miles depending on where I’ll go. So a good workout day like that can easily sneak up toward 30 miles between two runs.

MR: Are you coached?

NJ: No, I’m not. I pretty much follow Renato Canova’s stuff. I actually got to talk to him at last year’s [ING] New York City Marathon. He helped me tweak what I was doing. But I don’t think a half-hour conversation a year ago counts as being coached by anybody.

MR: The Greater Boston area has a proud tradition of producing top running talent. Runners like Bill Rodgers and Bob Hodge come to mind. Do you consult some of these legends for advice?

NJ: In all honestly, I am very largely out of the loop in terms of runners today and the past. Bob Hodge is an alumnus of my college, so I’ve talked with him a couple of times. I’ve met Bill Rodgers twice. Anyone who’s met Bill knows he’s the nicest guy in the world. I’ve gotten some encouragement from him Bill Rodgers. But I don’t know too many of the guys. I know Bob coaches and has helped out other guys, which is great. I talk to them here or there. When I do, I find myself walking away with a little advice—a little bit of confidence. For example, I had a bad race at Falmouth where I had to drop out with the Achilles injury. After that, Bob Hodge posted a very nice comment on my blog. A lot of times getting something like that from those guys makes you feel better. It makes you think, “Well, they went through it too,” and that helps.

In terms of the history of it, I take a lot from that. A lot of these guys were just average guys—guys like Bob [Hodge], Vinnie Flemming, Dick Mahoney, Randy Thomas. They were just normal, average guys who just decided that there was no reason that they couldn’t be as good as anyone else out there. They looked at what the best in the world were doing for training and did their best. I think it was having that attitude that led them to run as fast as they did then. Honestly, I think if those same guys were running today, they’d be running as fast as the Africans are. They’d find that kind of training; they wouldn’t be satisfied with [running a] 2:10 [marathon] because 2:10 isn’t the same as it was.

MR: You have admitted to being a second-tier runner in terms of the upcoming Trials race. It sounds like you’re resigned yourself to being a dark horse going into this. But dark horses in the past have surprised the running world. Billy Mills is the classic example there. In his subsequent lecturing about his Olympic gold medal race, he’s talked about how much the mental aspects of his running and his use of positive imagery played into his success. Along those lines, how are you getting your mind ready for this big race? What imagery techniques are you applying? Are following any routines like listening to motivational music or something to get your mind ready?

NJ: I’m not one to run with an iPod or anything. That’s definitely not my speed. I like to focus on the run itself. A lot of the work I do is meant to prepare me for the rigors of the race. I do a lot of hard long runs as long as the race is going to be—running for 2:15. I do this to try and mentally prepare for that kind of effort. In terms of attitude, it’s tremendously important. I don’t think if you sit in your room in the dark and convince yourself that you’re going to win the Olympic 10K that you are going to be able to do it. But I do think if you can get yourself into the shape to have a shot at it and you don’t think that you can do it, you won’t; there’s no way. Every runner needs to be a little bit vain. They need to think more of themselves than they are. They need to think more of themselves than anybody else does. Or else you just aren’t going to get to that next level.

So many American runners [think that] you are only as good as your last race. Whereas, if you talk to a lot of the African guys, not only are you as good as the best race you ever had, you’re as good as the best race you ever could have. If you run poorly, it’s an aberration. If you run well, it’s not a surprise, because it’s what you are supposed to do. I think if you change your attitude in that way and expect breakthroughs and expect high performances, then that is a huge step. Now at the same time, that attitude leads a lot of Africans to run suicidal races. I was talking to a guy who had very similar PRs to mine all the way though to the half-marathon. But when we got to his marathon PR, it was 2:21. I asked him: “How is that possible? What’s wrong?” He was telling me that in that marathon, he went out in the first three miles at 4:50 per-mile pace and that’s why he couldn’t finish it. You’ve got to run smart, but you’ve got to have the faith that you can finish. You can’t get scared. If I go out and feel good, I’m not going to be afraid to run with that lead back. You have to take that chance. If that means I’m running 2:25 and crawling home, then so be it. At the same time, if it’s late in the race and I’m coming up on people, if you have even a passing thought of not thinking you can pass certain people like Meb [Keflezighi], then you won’t make it. The time to be in awe of them is after the race. Until then, everyone’s equal and you go for it.

Interview conducted October 14, 2007, and posted October 19, 2007.