Looking back on your CU career, are you satisfied with what you accomplished? What was the standout race or performance that you recall most fondly?
My most memorable race was my debut 5k. Indoors I ran 13:53 as a true freshman. That was the second fastest 5k debut at CU (only Ritzenhein was faster). Over the next three plus years I improved by a total of nine seconds. That is an improvement of less than three seconds per year. I consider that to be a complete disappointment as far as my running goes. However, if my running ambitions came at a cost, the time spent with my friends and at CU filled that deficit many times over.
I don't want to say you didn't run well at CU, but I know you had a more impressive high school career - 3rd at US Junior Cross Championships in Boulder, a Footlocker regional champion and fifth at the national meet as a senior. Going into CU, did you hope to compete for NCAA national championships? If so, what do you think kept you from racing at that level?
I need to first say that I am deeply grateful to Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs for giving me every opportunity to run at the best of my abilities for four years. With that being said, something went truly wrong in my time at CU. My freshman year went fairly well, but after that my performances fell off. My coaches helped me in every way that they could and I made every effort to make good on their investment as well as my own. But somehow things never worked out. I stayed healthy, trained consistently, refined my training plan from year to year and still ended up short on race day. I do not believe that there is a cookie cutter recipe that will bring the talent out of a runner. However, the CU system has worked consistently well for a huge variety of people. It has worked so well that it is hard for me to believe that somehow my body and my response to the training is different and thus didn't respond as expected to the CU training approach. The only logical option I am forced consider is that I did something wrong. I am still trying to figure out where I came up short and adjust my future training. However, in my final season I ran by far the lowest mileage of my college career (80 miles per week) and improved my 5k time by 6 seconds, the largest single season improvement of my time at CU. This leads me to believe that over-training may have been a problem. But I am in the process of figuring out what I need to do to improve on my past several years.
Who was the most talented runner you competed with at CU? The hardest worker?
Richard Medina is the most talented and does the work to back it up. I cannot tell you how many times I have wished that I looked half so smooth while running. Seeing what he does his senior year is what I am most looking forward to at CU.
The hardest worker on the team is a tie between Andy Wacker and Cameron Clayton. They run as much as is humanly possible for two social college students. Cameron once passed out and face planted repeatedly on a run because I believe he literally could not consume enough calories to keep his body upright. Andy ran for at least a month with a hernia and still didn't want to have the surgery. Devout means: devoted in a religious duty or exercise. These two are in love with this running thing in a way I have never seen.
Since graduating, you've raced BolderBoulder, the Teva Mountain Games 10K, and the Stadium Stampede 5K. BolderBoulder aside, it looks like you're targeting prize money races. How have you found the state of Colorado road racing in terms of money and competition?
The competition is good, and there are tons of races out here that offer enough money to help runners continue their careers, even if they can't yet land a big money contract.
You won the Stadium Stampede 5K, but missed out on the $500 cash and airline ticket prize. Any hard feelings over that technicality (Matt was registered as a USATF New Mexico member at the time)?
I have mixed feelings over that decision. What makes it hard to swallow is that I spoke with the race director and a USATF representative several days before the race to make sure I was eligible to receive the prizes. I made the changes they requested and then won the race, but was denied my earnings. An airline ticket is a big deal to me. And five hundred dollars goes a long way in my world. However, I am trying to count my blessings, which include that as I was trying to sort things out, I met Tania Pacev. She is a USATF representative who is truly earnest about helping Colorado athletes. She went out of her way to help me resolve the issue with my registration, unfortunately I had to leave empty handed. She is still working with me on getting my clerical errors worked out so this doesn't happen when I win next.
The Teva Mountain Games 10K is a definite mountain race, and a very competitive one. Did you find mountain running to be an entirely different discipline?
Yes, mountain running is completely different from other running I have done, even cross country. This particular course in Vail wound it's way directly up one ski slope only to descend another even steeper hill/cliff. There was no point during any of the descents that I felt as though I was in control of where my legs were going. And half of the race was not even on a trail. There were just signs pointing you in direction of your next ascent or descent. Several times throughout the downhill sections I didn't see the signs in time and would barrel right past, have to come to a complete stop, and work my way back up onto the course. These little missteps made this event easily the most fun I have had racing in a long time.
You're planning to stay in Boulder, what are you post-graduation plans? What was your degree in, are you looking for full-time work, or just planning to run and race?
My post-graduation plans were just finalized this past week, which I am very excited about. My fiance is going to finish her eligibility at CU along with her master's coursework. While she does that, my plan is to find a part-time job and continue my running under Lee Troop with the Boulder Track Club. I am so excited to work with this group because there is a lot of talent and I respect their emphasis on building a running community in Boulder that keeps local athletes local and puts them in a position to give back to their community. Other than running and working, I graduated with a degree in Studio Arts, and I plan to pursue that as much as time permits. However, my fiance and I will be busy working out the details of our wedding, so the artistic pursuits are the least of my immediate concerns.
Thanks Matt, good luck to you and the Boulder Track Club.
Without Limits
vBulletin Message
The following errors occurred with your submission