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Bowerman Track Club

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Jager takes third in Brussels finale

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Evan Jager closed his season with a third-place finish in the 3000m steeplechase at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday night, the 28-year-old recovering from a late-race fall to reach the finish in 8:11.71.

On a cool, damp night in the Belgian capital, the early pace was strong, with pacemaker Haron Lagat towing the field through 1000m in 2:40.27. Soon after, as the pace began to slow, Jager moved to the front in search of his first sub-eight-minute clocking, and he led the field through 2000m in 5:24.45. Dogging his heels all along, though, was Olympic and world champion Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya, and Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, who had both beaten Jager into third at the World Championships in London last month.

Approaching the bell, El Bakkali surged past Jager, then Kipruto moved around, leaving the Nike Bowerman Track Club athlete to fight it out for third. Kipruto closed in late to pass El Bakkali right by the line to win in 8:04.73, El Bakkali second in 8:04.83. Jager’s race very nearly ended at the final water jump, the American losing his footing on landing and crashing to the track, but he quickly picked himself up and summoned all his spirit and strength to outkick compatriot Stanley Kebenei to take third in 8:11.71.

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Evan Runs US#12 All-Time Over 1,500m

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Evan Runs US#12 All-Time Over 1,500m

Coming off a successful stint at altitude, Evan ran an inspired performance at the Portland Track Festival, winning the men's 1,500m in an eye-opening time of 3:32.97. Not only did Evan set a new personal best by over three seconds, but he ran the second fastest time in the world this year and  became the twelfth fastest American ever. All in a days work!

U.S. Men's All-Time 1,500m List

3:29.30  Bernard Lagat

3:29.77  Sydney Maree

3:30.54  Alan Webb

3:30.90  Andrew Wheating

3:30.98  Leo Manzano

3:31.01  Jim Spivey

3:31.09  Matthew Centrowitz

3:31.52  Steve Holman

3:31.76  Steve Scott

3:31.93  David Krummenacker

3:32.20  Lopez Lomong

3:32.97  Evan Jager

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Pre Classic Recap - Nearly Breaks American Record

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Pre Classic Recap - Nearly Breaks American Record

A quick early pace in the men's 3,000m steeplechase led to fast times across the board and Evan held tough to finish fourth overall in 8:05.28, just off his American record. Saturday afternoon at the Nike Prefontaine Classic and sporting his new Bowerman Track Club uniform, Evan was plenty happy afterward, but focused ahead to USA Outdoors. 

8:01.71 - Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN)
8:01.83 - Jairus Birech (KEN)
8:05.20 - Conseslus Kipruto (KEN)
8:05.28 - Evan Jager (USA)
8:13.95 - Paul Koech (KEN)

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First Blog Ever! - Park City, UT Altitude Camp

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First Blog Ever! - Park City, UT Altitude Camp

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Let me start this thing off by stating that this is my first blog post ever and that I am not claiming to be a good writer by any stretch of the imagination. I wanted to start blogging every once in awhile to 1) give those that I am close to, but don’t get to see very often, a way keep up with my life 2) give other runners a sneak peak into what a professional runner’s life is like (spoiler alert: it’s boring, sorry) and 3) give myself something productive to do every now and then now that I am FINALLY finishing up school.

After the Payton Jordan Invitational, myself and a large portion of the Bowerman Track Club flew to Salt Lake City, UT and made the drive up to Park City to begin our first altitude camp of the year.

I love altitude training camps for many reasons. First of all, an altitude camp usually comes at a time of the year when we start gearing up for our very important races and it’s a great way to really focus in on your training and what you want to achieve throughout the season. For me, our altitude camps have forced me to not enroll in classes for the term which gives me one less thing to worry about, making it easier for me to put 100% into my training. And finally, it’s really fun (most of the time) getting to spend extra time with the guys and girls on the team that I don’t live with back in Portland.

Anyways, the first week of altitude is in the books and everything has been going well. Our first four or five days were pretty busy with getting situated in our new homes for the next six weeks, grocery shopping and finding new places to run and workout and do core.

Logistics aside, the first week of altitude is always a balancing act of feeling really good or feeling extremely awful. Some days, when the sun is shining down on you, there is no wind and you’re exploring a new pristine dirt trail with spectacular views, you feel like you could run forever. Then there are other days, when it might be just a little cloudy and a little windy, that you look down at you watch only to find that you are only ten minutes into your run, you have 50 minutes to go and you haven’t broken eight minute/mile pace yet (we try to get down to at least 6:00-6:15 pace for most runs). Thankfully, I have had more of the first-example days as opposed to the second- example days, so far.

I am really excited to be up here in Park City training. I know I will be gaining fitness while I am up here as long as I continue to consistently put in the work and am able to stay healthy. My first steeple session of the year is coming next week. I am really looking forward to it because they help me to prepare for the grind of a really fast steeple race, which I happen to have planned for the end of the month.

I am going to be racing the steeple at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on May 30th. I am especially excited for this race because it is on U.S. soil with eight of the top ten steeplechasers in the world from last year. I feel my fitness is in a place where I should be able to compete with all of those guys and being able to do that on U.S. soil is an opportunity I don’t get very often.

Hopefully all goes well over these next couple weeks, I have a good showing at Pre and have a good start to the rest of the year!

- Evan 

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After Furious Finish, Evan Places Third in Two-Mile at USATF Indoors

Evan finishes third at USATF Indoors(photo by Kirby Lee)

Evan finishes third at USATF Indoors
(photo by Kirby Lee)

Coming off a strong indoor campaign, one in which he set an indoor mile best of 3:55.25, Evan headed into the USATF Indoor Championships looking to come away with a national title over the two-mile distance. 

A conservative early pace saw Evan and his Bowerman Track Club teammates trade leads for the majority of the race. With a half dozen athletes in contention with less than a half mile to go, Evan shifted pace and worked to pull away from the field, but it wasn't enough, as teammate Ryan Hill blitzed a 23.5 final 200m to run to his first national title. 

Evan hung on to place third, a half stride behind Ben Blankenship and a stride ahead of Garrett Heath, capping his indoor season with a 8:27.44 effort.

Watch the Full Race on USATF.TV

Onto the outdoor season!

Final Results

8:26.72 Ryan Hill (Nike/Bowerman TC)
8:27.31 Benjamin Blankenship (Nike/OTC Elite)
8:27.44 Evan Jager (Nike/Bowerman TC)
8:27.99 Garrett Heath (Brooks)
8:32.51 Chris Derrick (Nike/Bowerman TC)

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