How Delusional is Nate Jenkins?

Then you must just have a problem with yourself.

Sagarin wrote:

I couldn't care less about Nate Jenkins, frankly.

Amazing that I've managed to provoke so many defensive responses, which speaks volumes itself.

Happy trails.

S. Prefontaine wrote:

Then you must just have a problem with yourself.

Sagarin wrote:

I couldn't care less about Nate Jenkins, frankly.

Amazing that I've managed to provoke so many defensive responses, which speaks volumes itself.

Happy trails.

Why does the f&cker visit LetsRun if he doesnt believe in the dream?

Sagarin wrote:

I couldn't care less about Nate Jenkins, frankly.

Amazing that I've managed to provoke so many defensive responses, which speaks volumes itself.

Happy trails.

funny that you'd post on a thread about him them, that also speaks volumes. I'm guessing you've yet to find a meaningful existence if posting on letsrun about people you couldn't care less about is how you spend your time.

Ian Thompson: 14:05, 30:10 and 2:09 plus at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. Drop me an e-mail and I'll tell you where to send the $10.

Ian Thompson was my house guest sometime in the early 80s. A gem of a guy. He asked me if I had and boot black. I said I did. He said that he knew I would. I man with polish.

Tom

This just in, RUNNING CAUSES CANCER! AND HEART DISEASE!...according to Sagarin. Never mind a huge scientific body of evidence to the contrary.

[/quote]

He was a 2:15 marathoner, now he is a 2:31 marathoner, only as good as your last race.[/quote]

So I guess Teg and Solinski are 16:30 guys now.

It is so good to hear it.

Also, tell that "give up" bollocks to Mamo Wolde! He was 36 when he won his first medal. Four years later, he was at it again!

There could be a couple exceptions (as already found). But any endurance oriented runner still seems to have a 10k pr around 29 min or faster. Perhaps one might look to Japan to see if there are any relatively modest 5k-10k prs for 2:10ish marathoners.

Toshihiko Seko ran 2:08, Not sure of his 5,000 and 10,000 PR's though.Benji Durden is another 2:10 guy that comes to mind but alas I can't think of his shorter PR's either, im sure someone reading this knows them though,

*stipe wrote:

There could be a couple exceptions (as already found). But any endurance oriented runner still seems to have a 10k pr around 29 min or faster. Perhaps one might look to Japan to see if there are any relatively modest 5k-10k prs for 2:10ish marathoners.

It's hard to understand an athlete at times, I think if we can STILL run or have the ABILITY to then why not see if we can continue to 'push' ourselves until we are crippled or have a broken bone--I don't know maybe Jenkins feel like if he's STILL able to run, then why not?

I think it's really hard once you've nearly accomplish a goal or close to it, to only possibly lose it? But then again, I am a newbie at this sport so I can only speculate.

Seko was 1:51 for 800 I believe, low 28:00's, Benji ran 51.x for 400 in HS, around 28:30 for 10k.

Ian Thompson was a former bike racer before picking up running in his 20's, Wolde also picked up running later on, can't compare those two to someone who has been at it since middle school.

There was an article recently about how younger (18-22 year old) Japanese runners perform better from the half to full marathon. My understanding is that Japan places a greater emphasis on the marathon. I don't have depth charts, but perhaps there are more 2:10 Japanese marathoners than 2:10 Americans and they would be likely to have slower 5k-10k prs.

Except you're being self-righteous and rigid in how you present yours, whether you intended that or not. What Nate's doing and how long he does it for hurts nobody, not even himself. He may not be a frikken genius but neither is he some naive little waif who's been suckered into a life of vice by a lust for the unobtainable distant sparkle of fame and material trappings. He clearly must find some beneficial personal meaning in what he's doing, though as with anything requiring great endurance for an eventual and uncertain payoff doubts naturally arise. I have far more respect for him and what he's doing, regardless of my judgment of his odds for success, than I do for some smug goldbrick who dicks around on the internet during the workday. People like YOU are a large part of the reason that America is so unproductive and has lost economic ground to Japan and China, among others. Stop worrying about Nate Jenkins and get to worrying about how you will someday make a positive contribution to society and country.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

*stipe wrote:

There could be a couple exceptions (as already found). But any endurance oriented runner still seems to have a 10k pr around 29 min or faster. Perhaps one might look to Japan to see if there are any relatively modest 5k-10k prs for 2:10ish marathoners.

If you are going for it, you are already working under the assumption that you are "an exception." It is, as they say, the price of admission.

You're not still in touch, are you?

David Foster Wallace:

"We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cub tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd."

"W]e prefer not to countenance the kinds of sacrifices the professional-grade athlete has made to get so good at one particular thing. . . . We prefer not to consider the shockingly vapid and primitive comments uttered by athletes in postcontest interviews, or to imagine what impoverishments in one's mental life would allow people actually to think in the simplistic way great athletes seem to think. Note the way "up-close and personal profiles" of professional athletes strain so hard to find evidence of rounded human life—outside interests and activities, charities, values beyond the sport. We ignore what's obvious, that most of this straining is farce. It's farce because the realities of top-level athletics today require an early and total commitment to one pursuit. An almost ascetic focus. A subsumption of almost all other features of human life to their one chosen talent and pursuit. A consent to life in a world that, like a child's world, is very serious and very small."

"I was by myself, wearing nylon warm-up pants and a black Pink Floyd tee shirt, trying to spin a soccer ball on my finger and watching the CBS soap opera “As The World Turns” on the room’s little black-and-white Zenith. . . . There was certainly always reading and studying for finals I could do, but I was being a wastoid. . . . Anyhow, I was sitting there trying to spin the ball on my finger and watching the soap opera . . . and at the end of every commercial break, the show’s trademark shot of planet earth as seen from space, turning, would appear, and the CBS daytime network announcer’s voice would say, “You’re watching ‘As the World Turns,’ ” which he seemed, on this particular day, to say more and more pointedly each time—“You’re watching ‘As the World Turns’ ” until the tone began to seem almost incredulous—“You’re watching ‘As the World Turns’ ”—until I was suddenly struck by the bare reality of the statement. . . . It was as if the CBS announcer were speaking directly to me, shaking my shoulder or leg as though trying to arouse someone from sleep—“You’re watching ‘As the World Turns.’ ” . . . I didn’t stand for anything. If I wanted to matter—even just to myself—I would have to be less free, by deciding to choose in some kind of definite way."

Holy crap people are downright hostile when someone challenges the notion that Jenkins might not have what it takes to make it to "the next level." I don't agree with Saragin on many of his posts, but I believe there is some truth in his posts about Jenkins.

Look at Jenkins' past two years of racing. See anything promising? Sure, he ran a few good indoor races, but there are dozens of guys in college running faster times. He's already made a tremendous improvement from his high school days. He should be commended for that. But it seems as through he's looking for another major breakthough, and at this level it's just not that simple.

I think he's taken his body as far as he can on his own. Maybe it's time for a coach or trainer, someone who can objectively look at his training and guide him in the right direction. Maybe he needs a competent doctor or other health pro to fix his leg ailments. Several years of treatment from Mika doesn't seem to be doing the trick. He's trying to grind out ridiculous mileage and workouts on a broken body...it doesn't make sense.

Now I don't know the guy, but it seems like he might want something else in his life other than running. I know I did my best running when I had other things going on. It made me take a break (mentally and physically) every once in a while. He seems like a guy who needs to get out of his head. Let someone else worry about the workout for a while. Sure, he may have to share the limelight if he has success, and he might lose the "self made runner" moniker, but that's a small price to pay.

Nate Jenkins "so fly he get jet lag walking down the street...."

Credit

http://www.myspace.com/renzodakid

NateJenkinsIS BALLIN wrote:

Nate Jenkins "so fly he get jet lag walking down the street...."

Credit

http://www.myspace.com/renzodakid

Amen, brother, amen...SIIIICCCCKKKK....