In what can fairly be called the top performance of his career to date, Tim Nelson placed second at Saturday’s national cross country championships in Derwood, Maryland. Sprinting like made over the final few hundred meters of the muddy, hilly 12K course, Tim almost ran down Meb Keflezighi. Both were timed in 36:06.
Tim was part of the four-men chase pack that trailed Meb by 9-10 seconds from the second of the six 2K loops. On the last lap, the chase pack of Tim, Ed Moran, Jorge Torres and Bobby Curtis briefly cut Keflezighi’s lead to 5 seconds, but then the gap reopened. Tim said that he was then racing for second.
“I was just focusing on beating those guys. Ed took a spill with about 800 to go,” Tim said immediately after the race. “Then Jorge fell off. With maybe 600 to go I was sitting on Bobby Curtis to make my move on him. I had kind of conceded the win to Meb. When I made my move on Bobby, I saw that Meb was looking back. I thought, ‘I can go for it.’ He looked back like 10 times. Every time he did, I kicked it up to another gear. I didn’t have enough room there at the end.”
So far, Tim and his coach, Jerry Schumacher, haven’t decided if he’ll run the world championships next month in Amman, Jordan. Tim’s main goal for the spring is to get the World Championships “A” standard in the 10,000m and to make the American team for that August meet in Berlin.
Results are here. Photos are here.
The end of the race was simply amazing. No one looked like they could challenge Meb after the first two laps. The gap remained 8-10 seconds after 4k and by 10k I think most everyone watching felt Meb was going to win. Then, out of nowhere, came Tim in the last 400m. This was hands down the most exciting finish of the day. Congrats to Tim on a monster performance. Best of luck in the coming months!