Matt Tegenkamp closed out his 2007 track campaign with a 13:07, 11th place showing at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels. Matt held onto the fast early pace and put himself in good position with 1000m to go; unfortunately he couldn’t hold onto it over the last two laps, and just missed his PR of 13:04.
It was a great season for Matt, which included an American Record at 2 Miles and a 4th place finish at the World Championships. He had this to say after his race today:
I’m happy with the way I ran tonight, but I think if I had run just off the pace early on (similar to Chebii) I would have been able to finish stronger and with a faster overall time. I was a little bit over my head at 3k, but I need to get used to coming through in 7:45ish. Considering that I have been running 50 miles per week for the last month, I’m very happy with the way I ran. This year was still about development and that involved quite a few races. Unfortunately, that takes away from maintaining strength. I was able to do plenty of speed/sharping work, but it’s hard to make it through such a long season that way. Next year will be a little different with less racing before the Olympics; I should be able to hold my strength phase longer, which will make racing in September much easier.
Here’s a video from the KIMbia vault that never got posted. It was created before Lausanne earlier this year:
October 4th, 2007 at 5:29 am
[…] be Tom Ratcliffe, Matt Taylor, Bob “Kugaa” Gusmini, Jamie LaChance, Matt Ellis, and Matt Tegenkamp. Rumored attendees include Chris Solinsky and Simon Bairu. Not attending is Godfrey Kiprotich. […]