KIMbia Athletics

There’s nothing better than surveying the previous fifty-two weeks of your life and realizing how fun and gratifying they were. Here’s a look back at just a handful of the memories we at KIMbia Athletics will take away from 2011. If you had your own memory from the year that included us or our athletes, please share it below!

10. Tim Nelson Steps Down and Beats Top-Flight 3000m Field in Seattle
Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? Nelly shocked American running fans when he dispatched middle-distance specialists German Fernandez, Alan Webb, and World Championship bronze-medalist-to-be Matt Centrowitz in a 3000m far below his comfort zone distances… and with a blistering kick, to boot. Read the full article

After a dream 2010, Chris Solinsky has had a nightmare 2011. Battling a lingering hamstring injury for the entire summer, a hard workout just days before his planned departure for Daegu ended up stinging the niggle into a strain. Thus, upon consulting with doctors and his coach, Solinsky decided that it was better to abandon his ambitious hopes for the World Championships — ideally, to set the table for a big Olympic year — in favor of ensuring his health for the Olympic push itself. Ultimately, Solinsky said that he felt that two weeks might have been enough time for the hamstring to recover and get him to the starting line — but that the mere two days between prelims and final simply wouldn’t be negotiable, given the pattern of recovery that had developed after hard efforts earlier in the season.

If there is any silver lining to be found in this disappointment, it could be that Solinsky’s spot will be filled by his own teammate, Andrew Bumbalough. Bumbalough made World Junior Championships teams in cross country and on the track, at 1500m, and broke out on the senior level with an “A”-standard 5000m performance in March. Solinsky said he will be making an elk-hunting excursion to take the edge off his frustration and disappointment, while Bumbalough packs for South Korea, where he will now get valuable championship experience. The Tennessee native and 2nd-year pro explained the timetable for discovering that he would be competing in Daegu and his goals therein.

Have you had a chance to learn Korean yet? What’s been the timeline of the last few days from Chris and Jerry deciding not to run, and you being officially added to the US team?

Learning Korean wasn’t really necessary. After seven weeks in Europe, and nearly three of them by myself, I completed the entire Rosetta Stone series solo. Time is money.

But the running timeline has been kind of crazy. I certainly wasn’t expecting to get called up. Chris is one of the toughest athletes I’ve ever been around. He would have done everything possible to get himself to the line. But as soon as I found out that there was even the slightest possibility that Chris’s hamstring might not allow him to run I kept my training runs going and added in a couple of workouts just to stay sharp. There isn’t a whole lot of fitness that can be gained or lost in this time period, it’s just about trying to keep the body accustomed to the hurt. It has been a particularly tough challenge in the heat and humidity of Tennessee – but that should serve me well in an equally hot environment in Daegu.

Coming out of USA’s as an alternate, was Jerry gearing your training and racing to keep you prepped for Worlds, just in case?

“Gearing me for worlds” really isn’t the best way to describe it. Because to be fair, we really didn’t know this was going to happen. Chris has dealt with this injury for a long time, almost the entire season. But he has been able to manage it and get by for several months. Obviously it got to the point where that was no longer possible and so he had to pull out. Had I known since June that I was going to Daegu, we probably would have approached the last few weeks differently. However, we have made the best of the information that we had at the time and have constructed a training plan accordingly. Sometimes as an athlete you have to be ready to roll with the punches – that’s what I’m trying to do right now!

What are your goals and game-plan for Worlds?

The goal is to race smart and relaxed in the prelim – stay in contact but use as little energy as possible to be ready for a big finish. The first step is making the final so that is certainly a goal of mine. But to achieve that goal I’ll need to follow through on some of the little steps like being relaxed early, finding myself in good position, and really kicking home. Additionally, this is my first Senior World Track competition so I’ll be looking to gain as much experience from this year, which I can implement for the Olympics next year.

What race from this year do you think will provide the most confidence as you take the line in South Korea?

I look back to Melbourne where I ran 13:16 as one of my best races of the year. I did a great job of what I just talked about – staying relaxed and striking at the right time. That should prove to be helpful when I begin to approach my prelim in Daegu.

You competed for the US in both Cross Country and Track at the World Junior Championships level. After making your first senior team in Cross Country earlier this year, how does it feel to check-off that achievement on the track, especially coming in your first full year as a pro?

My goal from when I joined the group (back in September), and sat down with Jerry to discuss what I wanted to get out of this year, was to make the World team. I had a good US Champs this year but wasn’t quite strong enough to finish out the race with the top three. Despite having raced well I was still disappointed having not achieved that goal. I really wanted to make the team.

Obviously, this is not the situation I dreamed about – having to replace a friend and a teammate. I am really disappointed for Chris because I was there through all of the hard training this year. I saw how hard he worked and how ridiculously fit he was. He was poised to do something great this year. I got the call letting me know the situation and immediately felt bad that he was being denied the chance to compete but also realized it was now my responsibility to get as ready as I could in just a couple of weeks!

Bumbalough will start the Men’s 5000m on September 1st.

Four track standouts from KIMbia Athletics will officially be representing the United States at the 2011 IAAF World Championships, after the USATF announced its delegation for Worlds today. Oregon Track Club member Shalane Flanagan will spearhead the KIMbia contingent headed to South Korea, as the runaway 10,000m Champion at June’s US Championships. With an Olympic Bronze in the same event in 2008 — and after earning the bronze medal at the World Cross Country Championships early this spring — Flanagan is undoubtedly one of the best American hopes for a medal in the distance events. Meanwhile, OTC teammate Matt Tegenkamp will also contend the 10,000 in Daegu, while Chris Solinsky takes the line in “The Five.”

Coming from the opposite American coast, NJNYTC’s Delilah DiCrescenzo rounds out the women’s steeplechase squad, and will go to Asia with a solid third place finish in Lucerne as her most recent steeple result. She plans to run the Falmouth Mile on August 13th as a final tune-up before Worlds.

Once in South Korea, Team KIMbia will be getting right down to business: heats in the women’s steeple start on the first day of competition, with the women’s 10,000m final taking place that evening. Read the full article

The KIMbia performances highlighting this year’s US Championships included four qualifiers to Worlds and one US title, plus one alternate spot and two other top-five finishes.

W10,000m — If you wanted a demonstration of the term “putting on a clinic,” Shalane Flanagan delivered one in the 10,000m, taking the lead almost immediately and methodically clipping off 74-second laps. No other athlete in the field tried seriously to match her pace, and she ended up soloing an extremely impressive 30:59.97 to dominate the field and claim yet another US title. That mark is the 6th-fastest American performance ever.

M10,000m — Matt Tegenkamp, possessor of the world-class gear-change that netted him 4th-place and 8th-place finishes at previous World Championships, was poised to strike late in a very pedestrian 10,000m. Read the full article

On Day One of the Prefontaine Classic, Shalane Flanagan turned in the best performance of any KIMbia athlete, logging a 14:49.68 to place 6th in an absolutely stellar field. At the bell, it looked like Flanagan had a very real shot at the American Record of 14:44.76, but she fought home with a tough 69-point final lap — a circuit featuring what she called “the worst rigging ever.” However, her performance was still good for a World Championships and Olympic “A” standard and the fifth-fastest American clocking ever… and she owns three of the other four. Afterwards, she spoke with LetsRun.com and admitted that she was a little disappointed that the early pace was slower than expected and, thanks to the altitude training phase the team is currently in, that she had “limited speed” to bring into the furious finish she knew the slow start had ensured. Meanwhile, Lineth Chepkurui ran 15:15.15 — a numerical anomaly, for sure, but also an agonizing point-one-five outside of the “A” standard in the 5000m. In all likelihood, this race will conclude Lineth’s 2011 campaign, a season that saw impressive wins at Bolder Boulder and Bay to Breakers, and also a return to the track to prepare for a bid to London in 2012. Standout Vivian Cheruiyot won the race.

In the Men’s 10,000m, the Hayward Field crowd was treated to the best 10,000m field ever assembled in the United States… and, it turns out, arguably in the whole of history. Read the full article