Run Matt Run! | Kendall Card 2.0

Apr

stored in: Family

My little brother in law is fast. Super fast. Funny thing was, I never realized this as he was growing up. He was this skinny little kid (still is ultra skinny) that bounced off the walls and when he wanted to speak had to pump up the volume to get anyone to hear him. That is, because there are 11 kids in the family and being the youngest is a challenging spot to be in when you want to be heard.

Anyway, like his older sister Cynthia (my wife) and his brother Mark, Matt decided to run Cross Country in High School. And run he did. During his senior year he placed in the top 3 at state in Cross Country as well as the 1 and 2 mile distances in track.

I experienced his running speed when last summer during the Burley Spudman Triathlon after putting a solid lead on him during the swim and bike he came blazing past me somewhere around mile 5 in the run. I didn’t have a chance as he went on to post the second fastest run time of the day.

High School (and me) behind him he’s running at Utah Valley University. So when my mother in law sent this story about his recent run I knew I needed to give “little Matty” a shout out. Props to you brother!

Matt ran the 1500-meter race (1600 meters = one mile) at BYU on April 4th and Jenilyn, Angela, and I went down to watch. It was Matt’s first Outdoor Track Meet as a college student and he had no idea how well he would do. Matt was running near the end of the pack as he came around the last corner on the last lap and I was thinking, “Come on, Matt. Don’t come in last place.”

All of a sudden, he kicked into top gear and started passing runners like they were standing still. I had been cheering for him each time he came around the track, but this time I could only stand there with my mouth open. It was amazing. His legs were stretching out twice as far as any other runner and he looked like he was just gliding along. I was standing near the start of the straightaway and Jenilyn & Angela were at the finish line.

There was a BYU guy running way out in head of the pack and he was half way down the straightaway before Matt even came around the corner. Jenilyn said that the UVU teammates and fans were going crazy and yelling, “Go, Matt GO!” while the BYU fans were screaming, “He’s coming. He’s COMING!” The BYU guy gave it all he had and beat Matt by a freckle.

The announcer yelled, “MATT REEVES from UVU just gave a tremendous push at the end and nearly ran down the first-place runner!!” Then he got around to announcing the name of the first-place guy. It seemed that everyone was cheering for Matt and everyone was screaming. You don’t see that very often with someone running flat-out sprinter pace at the end of an almost mile run and coming from nearly last place to nearly first in just a few seconds time. It was so cool. Even Matt was enthusiastic! He said, “That was exciting. I didn’t know I could do that.”