AZ Salute to Seniors | Tatum Jelleberg

School: Skyline High School
Name: Tatum Jelleberg


Q: What does your training look like right now given the current situation?
A: Most training is by myself focusing on base and building up speed as it gets closer to championship season if we will still have one.

Q: What are you doing to stay busy other than run right now?
A: I am focusing on myself a lot and keeping my mind off the entire situation by playing video games with many of my friends. I would love to hang out with them personally but I do not want to risk my health and my friends' health in the process.

Cross Country Sectionals Division 1, Section 2. Tatum took 7th place

Q: What was your most memorable race/moment?
A: My biggest race moment was at the Mountain Ridge Invitational this season right before the pandemic got serious where I and my teammate Aidan Tinen both broke the 10-minute barrier in the 3200m and was able to snatch the third-place spot.

Q: What was the funniest thing that happened during your running career?
A: There isn't a set moment in time that was beyond hilarious. However, I and my current and former teammates joke around with each other a lot and have made my experience running so much fun.

Q: Who would you consider your biggest competition over your four years?
A: The entire Skyline team has had a focus on beating Red Mountain and Mountain View in meets that we have with them. This meant winning our own fights against runners at an equal skill, and those two would be Matt Judd and Tommy Sewell. They are both great runners and I look up to them at times to help me get inspired to push myself.

2019 Mesa XC City Meet - Tatum took 3rd place.

Q: What was your greatest accomplishment?
A: My greatest accomplishment would be the fact that I was able to become one of the best runners to come through Skyline.

Q: If you could do it all over again what would you change about your running career in high school?
A: I wished that I had become more serious with my training in my freshman and sophomore seasons of cross country and track. If I had trained smarter, I believe that I could have much more success within my career and help my team to big accomplishments in the sectionals and state meets.

Q: What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome?
A: I have had many injuries throughout my high school career due to overworking myself and pushing myself WAY beyond my limits. It taught me to take recoveries light and save my energy for the big races and workouts that matter.

Q: What will you miss the most?
A: I will miss my team the most since they are the reason that I come back to practice every day with the thought of getting better. Our bond is strong and it gave me the motivation to push myself. It is definitely very hard to achieve something by yourself, but having my teammates with me helps me get even closer to the goals that I set not only for myself but for my team.


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