Interview with Matt Gabrielson

by Shannon Martin

Matt Gabrielson, 28, will debut in the marathon at the ING New York City Marathon on November 5. Gabrielson’s running career began as a high school student in Northern Iowa, where he won four state championships in track and field. Although Gabrielson played football as well in high school, it was his running that landed him a scholarship to run for Drake University. In college, Gabrielson was a 12-time All-Missouri Valley Conference Performer, a USATF Junior All-American in the 1500 meters, and a Cross Country Academic All-American.

Since turning pro, Gabrielson has steadily improved. He has twice represented the United States at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In 2005, Gabrielson placed second in the USA Half-Marathon Championships, in his debut at that distance, with a time of 1:04.06. On October 1, 2006, Gabrielson won the Twin Cities 10-Mile in a time of 48:54, 10 seconds shy of the Minnesota state record.

A member of Team USA Minnesota, Gabrielson trains in the Twin Cities under the guidance of his coach, Dennis Barker. Gabrielson has submitted some highly entertaining journal entries with thorough descriptions of his training, as part of the USA Distance Project Athlete Journals that New York Road Runners has been posting online. You can read Gabrielson’s entries here.

Mensracing.com caught up with the relaxed and affable Gabrielson after his long training run on a crisp mid-October morning.

MensRacing.com: How was your run this morning?
Matt Gabrielson: My run? It was pretty good. Perfect Minnesota fall weather, you know - 40 degrees, a little bit of sun, southwest wind [laughing]. That may sound pretty cold to you, but it was nice.

MR: So what type of training did you do this morning?
MG: We did, I guess what we call the Old River Road workout. It’s more of a marathon simulation. You try and run what your marathon pace would be with some surging thrown in there, so it was a 17 ½ mile continuous run basically. It went pretty well. My legs are a little bit tired from all this marathon training mileage, but I guess that’s pretty normal.

MR: With the extra training, are you also getting extra treatment, like more massages?
MG: Yeah, definitely. I have a dude here in town named Gregg Sivesind that gives me a pretty good deal on a massage. Not only do I like his work, but we’re both from Iowa just like Sam [Grotewold] at New York Road Runners. I also like just talking to him and that type of thing. He makes everything comfortable. Where we meet, at Augsburg College, is where my coach Dennis’s office is. I also get to get in the training room and use the ice whirlpool and all that good stuff.

MR: Sounds like you get the best of the best.
MG: Yeah, everything works out well. I’m definitely more on top of doing these things for this marathon stuff. I kind of had a rough spring, racing wise, and I just really want things to come together.

MR: I love the way you talk about this marathon “stuff.” It seems as though the fact that you are training for a marathon is still mind-boggling to you. When did you decide to enter the world of marathons?
MG: That’s a good question because never in a million years did I think I’d run a marathon, to be honest with ya. I wish I could be really great at the mile, and train for the mile, and race the mile because that’s my favorite event, but that’s not going to happen. Sam approached me at the Gate River 15K and kind of put the idea in my head and then at World Cross [Country Championships], I had an absolutely horrible race. I had to drop out because I had a pretty strong side stitch and I felt like junk anyway that day. I was talking to my coach Dennis who was in Fukuoka and more from being mad than anything else, I just kind of committed myself to the marathon after the track season was over. That was how it evolved. More or less, I was just telling people “I might do it. I might do it,” but all along in the back of my head, I knew that I just wanted to try it out.

MR: When did you start feeling comfortable telling people that you were training for a marathon?
MG: For certain? I probably committed to the marathon for certain after my last race in Heusden, Belgium. I was very disappointed with that race, so that was when I knew for sure that I wanted to do the marathon.

MR: Is there anything in particular that you attribute your disappointing racing season to?
MG: Something was wrong with me physically and I started taking some Feosol iron tablets and that seems to have made a pretty big difference. I did that on the advice of Ryan Hall. I was explaining to him some of my symptoms. I have had blood tests before and they said that everything was fine, but I didn’t trust that because they had never seen what my numbers were before. So, Ryan said to take the iron with vitamin C and B12 all at once. Ryan was experiencing the same thing in college. So, I did what he suggested and I feel like I recover better, run better, and am able to do VO2 max work that I wasn’t able to do before. So, I just think that my poor performances were really because of an iron-related issue.

MR: That’s great that you were able to pinpoint the reason why you were feeling so “off” physically.
MG: It wasn’t from a doctor either; it was just from talking to someone who experienced the same thing. I mean, we were sitting along the fence at Liege, Belgium, watching the women compete in the 5K, and I just brought this up with Ryan, that I wasn’t racing well. I told him that I was having trouble with the VO2 Max work and he said that he experienced the same thing. It’s funny how things work out sometimes, you know?

MR: So you are feeling a lot stronger now?
MG: Yeah, I’m feeling stronger. I am doing more mileage than I ever have, so I’m really excited to see what happens in the marathon, but more particularly, I am kind of curious to see how it goes the last four or so miles that everybody always talks about. People talk about that part of the race being pretty crucial.

MR: Do you have any strategies in place or do you see this debut marathon as more of an experiment?
MG: I think probably a little bit of both actually. I’ve been reading a lot of books lately on this and have been talking to my teammates Chris [Lundstrom] and Jason [Lehmkuhle] and even people here in the Twin Cities who are marathoners, which there are a lot of actually. I have been reading the Buddy Edelen biography and all this stuff and I think, obviously, being a first marathon, you don’t want to go out early and put yourself in a hole, so I think I will be a little more conservative.

I think I know what I can run; I don’t know if there’s going to be anyone around. I’ve read some aspirations of Joe Driscoll [who is also running the 2006 ING New York City Marathon], like what he wants to go through in the first half-marathon and a couple of other guys at that level. I think I am going to be pretty conservative early and then hopefully, I’ll be able to really focus on the last 10K.

MR: Are you excited about your debut marathon being in New York, where there is an amazing amount of support from the public, who will be cheering you on the entire race?
MG: Oh yes, absolutely, and also I have such a great relationship with David and Jane Monti, Mary Wittenberg, and New York Road Runners. They’ve always been good to me since I first started out and was trying to get my name out there. To be honest with ya, Dennis was talking about maybe Chicago or even Twin Cities. Those are great marathons and everything, but Twin Cities wouldn’t have worked because there wouldn’t have been enough time for me to prepare for that and Chicago is also a great marathon, but I kind of wanted to open up in New York because it basically has America written all over it. It’s a special place; there are a lot of people; it’s a challenging course; in my mind, there isn’t a better place where I’d want to do my first marathon for those reasons as well as a few other reasons like the support of the New York Road Runners, and just New York being New York. New York is one of my favorite cities in the entire world.

MR: Those are certainly great reasons for choosing New York. Let’s talk about Minnesota for a bit and Team Minnesota, where you have been training for over five years, right?
MG: I have been there since June of 2001.

MR: That was when the team was launched, right?
MG: Yes it was. Jason [Lehmkuhle], Chris Lundstrom, and myself were the first guys selected for the team and Carrie [Tollefson], Katie [McGregor], and Kristen [Nicolini] were some of the first on the women’s side. We were kind of the guinea pigs at first [laughing] and it seems that things have kind of taken off. The way they go about managing the whole group from the coaching, to the fund-raising, is so great. I am definitely thankful to everybody involved: the board members, Pat [Goodwin], Dennis, and especially my teammates. I just feel very, very fortunate to be given this chance because coming out of college, I didn’t exactly have the career of somebody who would continue five years after they're done with their college running; I didn’t make the national cross country meet; I didn’t have any All-American titles; there were no accolades really. Luckily, I signed up and they accepted me and I’ve taken off a little bit. I have a lot more left that I would like to accomplish; I feel like I’m just getting started really.

MR: What are some of the other things that you hope to accomplish?
MG: Well, there are some time goals on the track. I feel like I am capable of improving my 5K time. When I was in college, I ran 14:18 for the 5K and within three years , I dropped it down to 13:34, so I’d like to think I can run in the 13:20s for the 5K, and 28:10 or under for the 10K, and I still need to break this stupid four-minute mile; I’m two seconds away from that. I think this marathon training too will help all of that stuff.

I think I can keep going until 2012; I think that I’ll have enough left in me to be able to do that. The group will be together at least until then and hopefully my sponsorship from Reebok sticks and they keep me on board. I think I can be a guy who has an outside chance of making one of the spots for the Olympic team; I think that a lot of things will have to go my way for this to happen, but that’s what keeps me going each day and motivates me. I think I can possibly be one of the guys in Beijing who isn’t supposed to be there or who nobody would expect to be there.

MR: Well, you certainly have a lot of accolades now. You placed second in the USA Half-Marathon Championships in 2005 and just last weekend, you won the Twin Cities 10-Mile. Those are only a couple of examples of the many accomplishments you’ve made in the past few years.
MG: The Twin Cities was okay, but I was hoping to take out the state record set by Chad Johnson and the course record at the same time. It was a good run, considering that the week before; I had my highest mileage week ever. I was running on tired legs and they didn’t fail on me. You know, runners are weird because it’s never good enough; you’re never satisfied. I think that’s what makes good ones good, is being able to never quite feel satisfied. You also have to take pride in some of the stuff that you do, which I am learning to do as I get older.

MR: Tell me a little bit about the evolution of Team Minnesota since you have been there.
MG: I have to probably say that in reality, the team wouldn’t be as successful as we are without some of the things that Carrie and Katie have done. Carrie’s been to the Olympics and Katie has been to the World Championships; she’s won the 10K national title on the track and so on and so forth. I think that those kinds of things trickle down to the rest of us who are trying to get to that level but aren’t quite there yet; we see that our teammates are doing this and they are training the same way that we are, under the same leadership. We see that and believe that we can do the same thing. We’ve noticed this progress in national championship races, like Andrew [Carlson] getting third in the 20K, Jason [Lehmkuhle] getting fifth in the 20K, or myself getting second in the half-marathon. Basically what my point is that, with the evolution of the group, one of my favorite things that have happened is that we have been able to make big jumps because our teammates has set the standards and have inspired us.

We’re a really close-knit group. It’s almost like a family, especially with the way Carrie is. We don’t train together all the time because everybody is on different schedules a lot of the time, but when we get together, it feels right. There’s synergy there. It’s refreshing and makes the training easier, knowing that you have teammates who are working toward the same type of goals.

Really, what got the distance projects going, was the Hanson brothers showing what works for this sort of professional level training. They really set the prototype for it and then each of these other groups evolved in their own way. It’s nice to be able to know that there are options for distance runners out of school.

MR: So, when you were say a sophomore in college, did the thought ever cross your mind, that you would become a professional distance runner?
MG: Absolutely not [laughing]! No, I had three or four different coaches in college and there was never that consistency. I was never able to fully grasp what was going on at the professional level, plus back then, there wasn’t as much on the internet. These days, people can use the internet to really know what’s going on and find out about opportunities that are available.

So, when this Team Minnesota application did come by my way, it was kind of a surreal thing because you’re like “No way, there are opportunities to be able to support yourself enough to get by as a runner out of college?” I wouldn’t have guessed that two years before I got the application. So, when you get an opportunity like this, you have to apply, and get accepted hopefully.

I was so excited when I learned that I was accepted. I just know that I didn’t train the way a lot of people trained. I didn’t have lots of mileage, but I did know that there was something still left in me and I still feel that way. I felt then that I could make the jump to the next level and I still feel that I can jump to the next level. It’s just a matter of time I think.

MR: That’s such a positive attitude to have. Tell me about your work as a high school cross country and track coach.
MG: Well, I am an assistant coach at Edina High School. Actually my teammate Jason Lehmkuhle is one of the other assistant coaches. The head coach is Jamie Kirkpatrick who is kind of like a running junkie basically [laughing]. It’s great. We have seventh-graders through twelfth-graders. At 3:00 p.m., we have the middle-school kids and then at 3:45, we have the JV and the Varsity. I really actually get into the middle school part of it because that’s what I have a degree in [Elementary Education]. I specifically focused on that age. We won a lot of the races this year with the middle school kids, so it’s pretty fun. It’s interesting to see how they go about things. I never would have thought of running four or five miles as a seventh grader. I would have thought my coach was crazy, but they just go out and do it. It’s been a little bit of a tricky season for us. We have our conference meet tomorrow, so hopefully things come together for us there.

The kids have shown me some things that I have forgotten to remember about running and that’s that you can have fun with it. You don’t always have to be so serious. They are competitive and understand that your race is going to go the way that it goes and you take it for what happens. Be competitive during the race and do your best, and whatever comes out of it comes out of it. It’s been good for me because I’ve been able to step back and see what’s really important about running. I’m fortunate to be able to do this high school thing.

I also think the kids are lucky because they see from Jason and I that there are opportunities to run professionally. They see that there is a level where you can run beyond college. One of the eighth graders said to me the other day “I’m going to just keep running for a while so that I can be sponsored by Reebok.” They also realize that there are opportunities out there and I don’t think a lot of other places make it so known.

When I won the [Twin Cities] 10-Mile, the kids and their parents thought it was the greatest thing. The field wasn’t exactly a competitive field, but they didn’t know that. I wasn’t totally stoked about it, but the kids, their folks, and everybody just thought it was the greatest thing. That whole weekend is a big deal around here, so they all thought it was a big deal that I won the race.

MR: It sounds like you have a great support system with you there in the Twin Cities. You have your team, the kids that you coach, and the larger community that is so supportive of running.
MG: Yes, absolutely, the whole nine yards, and my family as well. I also have great support coming from Todd Klein and Jennifer Thomas at Reebok, who have been a big part of my relative success. Monetarily, I am not the richest person in the world, but in the sense of having the support that I do, I am pretty loaded.

MR: Wow, that’s a great way to put it. So, is your family still in Iowa?
MG: Yes, Belmond, Iowa, Dubuque, Iowa, and Des Moines, Iowa, too. Yeah, I have two brothers that are just a few years apart from me and you can tell when they are at races because they are louder than everybody.

MR: Are they younger than you?
MG: Yeah, Mitch is year younger than me and Mike is five years younger than me. I also have two sisters, but my brothers are the ones who really get into my running, as far as being the screaming fans, and my Grandma is really into it too. Pat Goodwin sends out press releases and she sends them to my family members, and some of my friends. My Grandma just loves to read about me that way. And my mom is a huge fan of Katie McGregor. She loves to get the press releases and read about her.

MR: Are any of your family members runners also?
MG: Um…no. Not at all; they are the furthest thing from it to be honest with ya. That’s the weird thing, the fact that I am really into this distance running now, when I used to not be so into it. I used to be more into basketball, football, and that type of thing. My family loves sports, but they are just not runners.

MR: That’s right; you used to play football in high school. Tell me when it occurred to you, that you wanted to become more focused on distance running.
MG: I was a decent athlete in high school. I played football, basketball, and baseball. I was All-Conference in all of those sports. The thing is, my senior year before my track season, I knew I could get college scholarships if I ran certain times. So, that winter, I was really excited about the upcoming season. I wasn’t running really that much, but mentally, I was excited to try to attain my goal times on the track. The times that I needed were what I ran, and I decided to go to Drake. So, basically, my last year in high school, after basketball season, was when I really got focused on doing what I needed to do in track. This is similar to what happened for me in the last year of college, when I decided what to do at the next level with the Team Minnesota thing coming together.

MR: Are any of your family members coming to New York to cheer you on?
MG: I think my dad wants to because my friend from high school, Sara Robson, ran New York, and her whole family went out there and had a really great time. That kind of got my dad excited about that possibility. I don’t really know though if I want that extra stuff around when it’s going to be my first marathon because I will worry about whether or not my parents found their hotel okay or if they will be able to navigate the subway to find the spots where they can cheer for me.

MR: So, you really don’t want any additional responsibilities; you want to focus on the marathon, and that is all.
MG: That’s exactly right [laughing]. I think I am going to have to sit down and have a little talk with my dad. We figured out that you can track runners on the internet, so I am going to suggest that he just does that for this marathon, and we’ll figure out how to work it out for him to come watch the next one. Maybe, they’ll come anyway, who knows. My brother Mike might possibly come and just hang out.

MR: You probably wouldn’t have to worry too much about Mike though. I feel like younger people tend to figure things out in the city.
MG: Yeah, my brother would probably stay up all night anyway and see what’s going on in New York City [laughing].

MR: Is there anything else you’d like to add to close the interview?
MG: I feel like I had a very disappointing spring racing season and I didn’t even come close to achieving my goals. People were probably wondering “What’s wrong with this kid? He’s not that good.” But now, I just feel like I’ve totally turned it around, thanks to the advice from Ryan Hall.

The marathon is obviously very unpredictable. I feel like we’re very prepared for New York City. Mentally, I am ready to just do this thing right and run a pretty smart race and run fast. I am looking very, very forward to it, and hopefully, I can just turn some heads, you know. And maybe people might even think that I will be a threat in a couple of years. At the same time though, if things don’t go 100 percent as planned, I’ll just accept what happens and I’ll just keep training my butt off. That’s the old blue-collar attitude that I love. I love it. I love Brain Sell’s blue-collar-type attitude, just get out there. It’s not always about talent. I may not be the most talented kid out there, but I sure work and race hard.

Interview conducted October 12, 2006, and posted October 19, 2006.