Ben True Looks To Tame Beast At UAE Healthy Kidney 10K

May 29, 2015 by Lincoln Shryack

Ben True wins the 2015 BAA 5K in Boston, Massachusetts

Ben True’s 2015 season got off to a rough start.

After finishing 6th at the 2013 World XC Championships, True was considered a lock to finish top six in February’s USATF Cross Championships in Boulder, CO. and represent Team USA at World XC in China. Instead, True was 11th on an unseasonably warm day in Boulder, 1:22 behind race winner Chris Derrick. As one of America’s top distance runners, the performance left him searching for answers.

Some days are hard, others are void of all explanation. Congrats to @CDerrickRun on a great showing and to all those headed to China
— Ben True (@bentrue) February 7, 2015

True’s poor showing may have had less to do with the heat, and everything to do with a change in his training. For the first time in his career, the 29-year-old had prepared for his season with an altitude stint in Boulder, which he hoped would make him stronger for the US Championships and beyond. For the unacclimated True, it did just the opposite.

“The altitude bit hard,” True said in April as he prepared for the BAA 5K in Boston. “It was my first real time training at altitude and probably did all the wrong things, training too hard, and not respecting it as much as I should.”

True wanted to test out his body’s response to altitude, and figured it was the right time at that point in the Olympic cycle. “I learned my lesson,” he said.

Ben True struggled to an 11th place finish at the 2015 USATF XC Championships.

True decided it was time to return to his home in Hanover, New Hampshire, and regain the strength which escaped him in the thin air of Boulder. The process of getting back to his “old self” was a lengthy one, and even after collecting his third straight US 15K Championship title on March 15th in Jacksonville, Florida, True was still recovering from his altitude stint.

It wasn’t until a few weeks later that True got the pop back in his legs and started feeling like himself again. “I dug myself into a big hole up in Boulder,” he said.

The Bounce Back

Given the adversity that True had to overcome before he ran the BAA 5K on April 18th, there was no American record talk going on as he took to the Boston streets on the Saturday before Marathon Monday. Sure, the course had been slightly altered with the hope of producing faster times, but Marc Davis’ 13:24 road 5K American record had stood since 1996, and True was just getting back into rhythm. Most of the attention pre-race was focused on 26-year-old Kenyan Stephen Sambu who was coming off his second straight victory at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler a week prior. Sambu had won eight road races since the start of 2014.

If True was still climbing out of the hole that altitude training had caused when he won the 15K in March, he all but covered the hole and got rid of the shovel as he glided past Sambu and across the finish line in 13:22, a new American record. Suddenly, the Boulder experiment seemed like a distant memory.

True after setting the road 5K American record in Boston:

“Coming out and having a result in a race like this today just shows that I’m on the right path,” True said after the victory.

Big Things Ahead

With an American record and a victory over road king Stephen Sambu renewing some of the confidence he lost this winter, True traveled to the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 2nd to knock out the IAAF standard (27:45) in the 10,000m. Even with a slow opening 5K of 14:08, True managed to get the job done, finishing 2nd in 27:43.79. With big plans of making his first World Championship team later this summer, True had checked an important box, and took another step forward in his season. He wasn’t about to rest on his laurels, though.

True's 10K race at the 2015 Payton Jordan Invitational:

True prefers the 5k to the 10k, and even after becoming just the 2nd American in 2015 to hit the standard in the longer event, he was still trying to figure out the distance. “The goal was to get the standard, so I got the standard, it wasn’t pretty though. I was a little worried I wasn’t in 10K shape going in to it, and I think that kind of proved I really wasn’t in 10K shape,” True said in a post-race interview. “I haven’t really felt like I’ve been able to figure it (10K) out yet.”

Taming The 10K Beast

True called the 10K “an untamed beast” after his performance at Payton Jordan, and he’ll get another shot at the distance this Saturday on the roads at the 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K. There, True will face a familiar foe in Stephen Sambu, who returns to Healthy Kidney as the defending champion after running 27:39 in Central Park last year.

2:03 marathoners Wilson Kipsang and Geoffrey Mutai will also race, strong competition for True in an event that he’s still trying to “figure out.” The hilly course presents a challenge in itself, and True will look to become only the second American to win the 11-year-old race. Dathan Ritzenhein won back in 2007 in 28:07.

Even on the tough course, True should have a good shot at the 27:48 road 10K American record which is co-owned by Bernard Lagat and Mark Nenow. 40-year-old Lagat ran an identical time to Nenow’s 1982 record just three weeks in the Manchester 10K, a race which was won by, you guessed it, Stephen Sambu. If True runs like he did in Boston, records and beasts could go down in Central Park.

One thing for certain is that Ben True is in a much more comfortable position than he was back in February. After stumbling through a tough block of training in an unfamiliar setting in Boulder, True is trusting that his normal routine will get him to where he wants to be- making teams, figuring out the 10K.

“I’ll probably stick with sea-level from here on out,” he said.

Watch the 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K LIVE on FloTrack this Saturday at 9:00am ET!