Nate jenkins at the BU Mini Meet

I want to talk about these posts. Three-fourths of these are inaccurate. It’s fiction and these posts make me embarrassed to be involved with athletics tremendously. They had to have been written by people that don’t have a child and has never had a child that’s had their heart broken and come home upset! And had to deal with the child when he is upset! And kick a person when he’s down!

Here’s all that kid did! He goes to mediocre meets, and wins. He is respectful to the media! He’s respectful to the public! And he’s a good kid, and he’s not a professional athlete and he doesn’t deserve to be kicked when he’s down.

If you have a child someday, you’ll understand how it feels. But you obviously don’t have a child. I do. If your child goes down the street and somebody makes fun of him because he got outkicked by a high schooler in a mini-meet, or says he’s fat, and he comes home crying to his mom, you’d understand. But you haven’t had that.

Someday you will and when your child comes home, you’ll understand. If you want to go after an athlete — one of my athletes — you go after one who doesn’t do the right things! You don’t downgrade him because he does everything right and may not race as well on Saturday! And you let us make that decision!

That’s why I don’t read the newspaper! Because it’s garbage! And the editor who let it come out is garbage! Attacking an amateur athlete doing everything right! And then you want to write articles about guys who don’t do things right and downgrade them, the ones that do win races.

Are you kidding me? Where are we at in society today? Go after his coach! He's a man! He's 40! He's not a kid! Write something about him! Don’t write a kid that does everything right, that’s heart is broken, and then say his coach says he was scared! That ain’t true!

So get your facts straight! And I hope someday you have a child and somebody downgrades them and belittles them and you have to look them in the eye and say, “You know what? It’s OK. They are supposed to be mature adults but they’re really not.” Who’s the kid here? Who’s the kid here? Are you kidding me? That’s all I’ve got to say. These posts make me want to puke.

I don't know why everyone keeps calling him such a hard worker. Here's Nate Jenkins on practice:

If I can't practice, I can't practice. It is as simple as that. It ain't about that at all. It's easy to sum it up if you're just talking about practice. We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise runner [for Saucony], and we're talking about practice. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a race, not a race, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the BU mini meet that I go out there and die for and run every meet like it's my last but we're talking about practice man. How silly is that?

Now I know that I'm supposed to lead by example and all that but I'm not shoving that aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important, I honestly do but we're talking about practice. We're talking about practice man. We're talking about practice. We're talking about practice. We're not talking about the game. We're talking about practice. When you come to the track, and you see me run, you've seen me run right, you've seen me give everything I've got, but we're talking about practice right now.

Nate Jenkins is one of the nicest guys out there. He came by our high school and talked and ran with us after our coach asked if he would. He didn't gain anything from it, but I know my team loved it. I think criticizing his character is unfair as he is a great guy.

As for his training and racing, I think its pretty awesome that he went from division 2 to 2:14 in the marathon with the body he has. Obviously people have every right to criticize him. But I think that it is really sad that this board belittles every single runner out there, whether its some middle school kid or a WR holder.

Look, I said it before and I'll say it again: "If you want to crown his ass, crown him."

gray area wrote:

Nate Jenkins is one of the nicest guys out there. He came by our high school and talked and ran with us after our coach asked if he would. He didn't gain anything from it, but I know my team loved it. I think criticizing his character is unfair as he is a great guy.

As for his training and racing, I think its pretty awesome that he went from division 2 to 2:14 in the marathon with the body he has. Obviously people have every right to criticize him. But I think that it is really sad that this board belittles every single runner out there, whether its some middle school kid or a WR holder.

Um, you just crticized him, saying "with the body he has", what the hell does that mean? He has two legs like all the other runners out there, is there something wrong with his body?

joeink wrote:

Seriously, have you ever seen his face when he's racing? If I looked like that I'd run at least 30 seconds faster in a 5k, but I'd have to throw out my shorts after every race.

...he's a self-coached, self-motivated man who loves running and wants to find out more than anything exactly how far he can take his body and mind with a combination of scientific knowledge, "interesting" experimentation (but who am I to say?) and a belly full of fire...

So you're saying that if I make an ugly face and sh*t myself at the end of a race I will PR by 30 seconds?

...Why does his face have anything to do with how much you respect him? You think that just because he looks ugly when he races he's working any harder than the 60 year old guys out there running 6'/mile?

So just because Bekele can finish a race looking like a G, it means that Nate Jenkins is working harder than him to run 4:14 in the mile? Come on man, you can't really believe that.

http://www.ethiopianreview.com/album/albums/userpics/10001/Kenenisa_Bekele_caps_an_Ethiopian_sweep_in_Edinburgh_

(AFP_and_Getty_Images)_2008.jpg

Him being self-coached is a personal decision as he has said many times. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it's not like he is unable to receive outside coaching. Because he chooses to be coached by himself make him more 'heroic' to you? I mean he's probably the only poor distance runner, working his ass off, trying to get better, living a less-than-luxurious lifestyle, in America

....oh wait

_________________________________________________________________

You're so annoying you just made me make that face, and I'm just sitting here on the couch.

Well I heard he has a herniated disk or something similar right now. So that's one thing wrong and yet he still manages to race the 5k and mile.

I have no idea who this is but I'm so glad this quote made this thread for no other reason than the fact I quote this all the time.

However, no matter what anyone wants to say about him on this thread, Nate Jenkins is a great guy. Class Act. As I say this, I realize even other people who know him personally might come on here and say the exact opposite, but with that said, not everyone is going to like everyone or like how they go about things.

Oh well, I'm sure that wont stop anyone from saying whatever they want.

Happy Holiday Miles.

Big Time T wrote:

Am i an inspiration to you? I ran 4:12 indoors as a freshman in college last year.

________________________________________

yes, but that was for the 1500m.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLLLL

Rob E wrote:

Well I heard he has a herniated disk or something similar right now. So that's one thing wrong and yet he still manages to race the 5k and mile.

Where did you hear that?

He's told a couple people I know about. It's something to do with his back.

Rob E wrote:

He's told a couple people I know about. It's something to do with his back.

Rob E wrote:

He's told a couple people I know about. It's something to do with his back.

It's his leg. He loses coordination in it. Ask him on facebook. I did. Or maybe don't ask him.. he might be tired of it?

From his blog:

11am EMG nerve test- basically they stick a bunch of needles in you and send small shocks to your muscles through the needles. It wasn’t something I would do for kicks but it wasn’t as bad as I expected. This showed that the disc is badly pinching the nerve leaving L5 in my spine and the nerves in my butt/hip muscles have degenerated some, but not so badly it can’t be reversed. This is good in that it shows the disc is the source of the problem, it is bad in that it shows the disc is worse then the docs were thinking it was.

So it's leg and his back. Godspeed!