KIMbia Athletics

Chris Solinsky takes in New York City for the first time, in this video by Jeremy Mosher of our friends at Less Than Our Best.

Here’s a nice post-Fifth Avenue Mile video interview with Chris, covering what he learned from his just-concluded season, the impending move to Portland, heading Down Under during the U.S. winter and getting his feet wet (ha ha) in the steeplechase.

A brief but busy day on East Coast roads for KIMbia on this last Sunday of summer.

First up, the CVS 5K in Providence, Rhode Island. In his road 5K debut, Matt Tegenkamp went through the mile in 4:23 with road veteran Luke Kipkosgei right with him. Matt gained a slight edge by the two-mile mark, but fellow U.S. Olympian Anthony Famiglietti, who was familiar with the course from having raced it before, reeled Matt back in, then surged away for the win on the race’s one major hill in the last half mile. Fam ran 13:41, with Matt second in 13:49 and Luke third in 13:57.

Jane Gakunyi took third in the women’s race in 15:51 behind Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan (15:28) and Ireland’s Mary Cullen (15:45).

A few hours later, Chris Solinsky tore down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue with a bunch of miler specialists, and placed fifth in 3:54.1. Olympic bronze medalist Nick Willis (3:50.5) edged out Bernard Lagat to win by a tenth of a second.

Providence results | NYC results

As many know I will be running the CVS 5K U.S. road champs this weekend. I wanted a fun way to end the season with little pressure and on U.S. soil. It was a tough decision because of the great field assembled for the Fifth Avenue Mile on the same day, but the 5K being a U.S. championship was the reason it won out.

I am still feeling good, still fit and wanted to see what I could do on a road course. The field in Providence is going to very tough and should be a great challenge. There was a little rough patch in my racing season but I have things back on track and hopefully this will finish out the season on a high note.

A recap of the season coming soon (hopefully with video).

After this weekend, a very short break, then on to a new adventure: altitude training.

Charles Munyeki ran one of, if not the best race of his young career on Sunday at the Rotterdam Half Marathon. Finishing fifth in a deep field, Charles ran 59:44 to record a massive improvement on his half marathon PR.

The race was won by half marathon ace Patrick Makay Musyoki, who outsprinted Evans Cheruiyot. Both were given a time of 59:22.

The boys did well in a predictably slow, tactical race (2:50 at the kilometer, 5:36 at 2K). After the kicking dust had settled, Matt placed third in 8:03.56 behind Bernard Lagat and Edwin Soi. Chris was right there in seventh in 8:04.78, ahead of such studs as 12:48 5K man Isaac Songok and kicker supreme Abraham Chebii.

This race in Stuttgart, Germany was their last outdoor track competition. The main race now is packing for the move in the fall to Portland, Oregon.

Results

• Straddling the end of summer track and the start of fall marathon season #

Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky are running the 3,000m tomorrow at the World Athletics Final. Their race is scheduled for 3:25 p.m. German time, which translates to 9:25 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, 8:25 a.m. in Madison, Wisconsin and 6:25 a.m. in their future home of Portland, Oregon.

You can watch their race and the rest of the meet, which occurs Saturday and Sunday, for free here.

Matt Tegenkamp hit a high note in the penultimate race of his outdoor track season by winning the 3,000m at today’s meet in Zagreb, Croatia. Matt ran 7:40.90 to win the sprint over Kenyans Vincent Chepkok and Mike Kigen.

Chris Solinsky was seventh in 7:44.53. He and Matt will end their seasons with the 3,000m on Saturday at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.

Results

After Chris ran 7:47.03 to place 8th in the 3,000m at Rieti, Italy on Sunday, he sent this post-race analysis:

I pretty much changed seasons just by traveling. I went from 50′s in London to 80+degree weather in Italy. This place is beautiful and I would love to actually enjoy it on vacation some time.

So down to the business of the race: I’m disappointed, but encouraged at the same time. I was saying before the race that I was feeling good and just had a good feeling about the meet and this place, and I’ve always heard that you run better when you’re in good temperament. Anyhow, I had no clue on the pace of the race, but I decided that was a good thing, and that I would just get in line and follow, look at the splits early on and then just race thereafter.

This could have been my downfall, though, because I went from being really brave in the race to apprehensive midway through. My first 4 laps went as follows: 58, 1:59, 3:00 and 4:01. When I saw the 4:01 I noticed that the front pack was pulling away, and I had a decision to make. The person who was in front of me was Abraham Chebii, who is a pretty smart racer, and I saw that he was checking off, so I thought that would suit me well. Plus, I thought if I went with the leaders I would not finish. (This was where my apprehensiveness came in.)

Unfortunately, Chebii started running 64-points, and this took us completely out of the race. By the time I figured this out, it was too late for a fast time. I still decided it was important to race, and with 650 to go I took the lead of our group and started chasing down those in front of us who were dying off. Unfortunately, I was gun shy here, too, and didn’t really go for home from 600 out like I normally would. This allowed Chebii and another guy to latch on me and outkick me down the stretch.

I am happy about the fact that these guys put some distance on me and I was able to get it back towards the line. I’m happy that I never blew up in the race, just got stuck in no man’s land. I am, however, unhappy with the fact that I was so gun shy to race as I have in the past.

Oh well, it’s behind me and I need to concentrate on my race tomorrow in Zagreb, Croatia. Once again I have no idea who is in the race (other than Matt) and I have no idea what the pace is.

I am hoping to be admitted to the World Athletics Final. Right now I’m on the bubble, but that one should be a sit-and-kick race, so maybe I’ll actually get a chance to use the kick that I trained for all year. I do have a kick, but I’m just not strong enough to get to use it at the end. If I can take anything away from this year it is that I will be much more focused next year with my training and I will focus a lot more on strength. It doesn’t matter how good one’s foot speed is if you can’t be anywhere close to use it, or go anaerobic too soon and take it away.

Once again thanks for all the support, and I’m definitely looking forward to getting home for some rest on Sunday.