Nate nearly great Lowell's Jenkins falls just shy of making U.S. Olympic marathon team

By David Pevear

LOWELL -- A year ago at this time, Nate Jenkins pleaded for an invitation into the elite field for the Houston Half Marathon.

The elite field director e-mailed Jenkins back to politely inform the former UMass Lowell standout that unless someone withdrew, no invitation would be forthcoming.

Jenkins never made it to Houston for that race in January that served as the U.S. Half Marathon Championships.

On Tuesday, he tried Houston again. Maybe this time there would be a spot for him in the elite field for the U.S. Championships on Jan. 13.

"Fifteen minutes later, I got a response," said Jenkins with a hint of a satisfied chuckle. "I was all set. Everything was taken care of."

Finishing seventh at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, as Jenkins did last Saturday in New York's Central Park, has its privileges.

In a marathon marred by the death of former U.S. champion Ryan Shay, who collapsed of an apparent heart attack 5 1/2 miles into the race, Jenkins exceeded his expectations. Though still finishing more than three minutes from making it to Beijing, Jenkins was delighted to run a 2:14:56 and place seventh, finishing just ahead of 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi.

"My fitness had been coming around the last four or five weeks. But I had mono last winter and really had gotten out of shape," said Jenkins, 27, a Lowell resident who is an assistant track coach at UMass Lowell. "So I still wasn't really sure. I thought if I could just finish in the top 20, that would be a real good accomplishment."

Jenkins' only previous marathon was over a fast course in Austin, Texas, where in February 2006 he ran 2:15:28. That performance qualified Jenkins for the Olympic trials last Saturday. The promise he showed in Austin also convinced Saucony to sign Jenkins to its stable of runners.

Shay also ran for Saucony, and the 28-year-old Michigan native was running a few steps behind Jenkins when he dropped out of the race last Saturday.

"We didn't find out (about Shay's death) until afterwards," says Jenkins. "He didn't collapse until after he stepped off the side of the course. It didn't strike us as being anything serious. I don't think it entered anybody's mind that it could be something like this.

"I was only an acquaintance of his," says Jenkins. "We ran for the same company. But he had number of close friends competing at the trials. The kid who won (Ryan Hall), his wife was in Ryan's wedding. If they had known the seriousness of the situation, there would have been no way for them to compete. That would have been an additional crushing blow. Making the Olympic team is not life and death, but runners put years of work and sacrifice into it."

Jenkins, who in high school ran for Narragansett Regional, will soon start training in earnest for the Houston Half Marathon. There he hopes to prove himself to be one of the top-10 road racers in America.

His personal-best for the half marathon is 1:04. He ran 1:06:16.25 last month as the top American (7th overall) in the BAA Half Marathon. He is hoping to run in the mid to low 1:03s in Houston.

Which might impress folks at the Falmouth Road Race, another race to which Jenkins had been unable to land an elite invitation.