King of the Jungle

Matt Clarke is a somewhat reluctant ruler of Melbourne’s most iconic running track, The Tan. Back in May 2018, Clarke set a blistering time around the 3.8 kilometre gravel track during a Dyson Tan Relays event, propelling him to the top of the Strava leaderboard. Strava crowns aren’t always hard to earn, but when you consider this is one of the busiest running tracks in Australia, and a training ground for many of our fastest athletes over the last decade, it’s nice to be the king.

To understand Clarke’s reluctance to claim his throne, you have to understand the two sets of times around The Tan. There are the pre-Strava times that can be found displayed on the pillars at the start of the lap, topped by a 2006 performance by Craig Mottram, his 10:08 the stuff of legends. In those days, start locations were different depending on who you asked (Ed: To be clear, we are in no way casting any doubt on Craig’s time - it remains the pinnacle and should be treated as such). In the new, digital age, the Strava segment starts and finishes at the traditional point; the Pillars of Wisdom located along Alexandra Avenue.

“Mottram’s time is just phenomenal. I don’t see it ever being beaten. I genuinely think Mo Farah could come over and have a crack at it and he wouldn’t dethrone Mottram’s record.”

While Clarke’s time was unexpected in the local running scene, and even to his coach Justin Rinaldi, it was no surprise for Clarke. “I said during warm ups to Rinaldi that I was going to get on the board and he said I had no chance!

I think I’m two seconds off the board at the moment. I want to get on there now.”

If you’re looking for the typical story of a kid who grew up running and has been winning trophies for 20 years, this isn’t the story for you. Clarke did indeed run as a kid, before giving it up to focus on…not a whole lot. Many careers are terminated before they started as kids reach high school and get lost in distraction, and Clarke was nearly one of them. After he graduated high school he found a new distraction; the night life. Eventually, at the age of 19 Clarke had the self awareness to realise he needed to make a change, and turned back to running.

“When I finished school I was probably going out too much. I just wanted to get my life on track. I thought I would give running a crack, I hadn’t really ran at all since Year 8.”

Success didn’t come overnight. Clarke had to shift weight, a daily reminder of the life he had been enjoying, and at the same time develop his body to handle significant workloads.

“When I started running I remember I was running with a group and doing half the session that the girls group was doing!”

A lot has changed since then. Running has gone from being a tool to help Clarke get his life on track, to being the central theme in his life. Steady progression over the last four years has Clarke in a position where it’s time to dream big.

“My lifetime goal when I started was to break 4 minutes for the 1500m (Clarke now has a 3:44 PB). Then it became a 4 minute mile and making a national final. Now after running a 29:07 10k earlier this year I think that’s when it hit me. I called my coach and said ‘This is what I want to do with my life, I want to make the Olympics, I want to throw everything at this’.”

Whether you look at Clarke as someone who’s been running all his life or a relative newcomer to the sport, his future looks bright. He’s part of Justin Rinaldi’s Fast 8 Track Club, which also includes Olympian Peter Bol and new Australian Record holder Jo Deng. It has been a massive year for the group, but Clarke admits to having second thoughts after his first season under Rinaldi.

“My first year after coming across, I didn’t PB at all for the whole season. So I started to question myself and whether I was doing the right things. But now that I’ve had such a breakthrough, and seeing Pete and Jo run so well overseas, it has cemented it in my mind that we’ve got it figured out.”

Clarke spent part of his 2018 season training and racing in the US, thanks in part to his connection with Australian Paralympian Jaryd Clifford.

“Last October Jaryd asked me to guide him in the 10k at the Melbourne Marathon *(Luke Mathews took guiding duties for half the race, and Clarke the other half). *I hadn’t done that before, and I think we only practiced once on an illegal length rope. During the race our communication was great, and Jaryd ended up with a 30:40 when his goal was just to break 31 minutes, so it was a great day.

When he was planning his US trip he needed a guide, so we spoke to Athletics Australia and I was able to go over to Flagstaff to train with him and guide him in a race over there.”

Clarke takes his guide duties in his stride, seeing it simply as an opportunity to run with a mate, rather than a selfless commitment to help another runner achieve their dreams. For someone in his early 20’s pursuing his own ambitions, Clarke’s attitude says a lot about his character.

“I don’t really feel like I’m sacrificing anything. It doesn’t tax my training too much. It’s a pretty selfish sport so it’s nice to do something that’s a bit selfless. Jaryd’s a champion bloke too so it doesn’t feel like a job. I really enjoy it.”

As the current Strava King of The Tan, what advice does Clarke have for those of us looking to set a PR around the undulating and challenging segment? Preparation, it seems, is not as important as you previously thought.

“The night before the relays I had work until 10pm. And then I had to pick up my girlfriend quite late and ended up getting 20 chicken nuggets on the way home at about 11:30 at night. So it probably wasn’t the best prep!”

If you are looking for serious advice on how you can run your fastest time around The Tan, Clarke does have some quality insight, most of it revolving around pacing and form.

“You have to treat it like a progressive run. Anderson Street comes pretty early, and then there’s that slight rise that follows it, but then it’s downhill.

The other tip is to keep your form when you’re going downhill. If you lose form on the downhill you’re going to overstride and put more braking force through your body.”

A quick check of Clarke’s Strava-topping run confirms his belief. On that day his kilometre splits were: 2:56, 2:53, 2:46, 2:38 (2:38 pace for the final .8 of a kilometre). In an age where everyone can check what the competition is doing, young Australian talent seems to be split in two camps as to what to do with their data. Jack Rayner is a Strava junkie, about to notch up his 2,000th follower on the platform, while Sydney based future-star Ed Goddard prefers to record everything manually in his training diary.

Does Clarke ever think twice about uploading all of his training for the world to see?

“I put everything up there. It’s a good training diary, and it’s what Rinaldi checks to see how I’m going. Running is about helping people out, I don’t keep any secrets. If people have questions on my sessions I’ll always tell them.

They still have to do the work”.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to dethrone Matt Clarke around The Tan, we’re about to give you the chance. Stay tuned for the TEMPO Tan Challenge on Strava during the month of October, and join our Strava Club to be in the loop.