Elke Wijkmans
Long Distance: 10k-Marathon Focus
Wamel, Netherlands
Personal Bests:
1500m: 4:50.71
3,000m: 10:12.58
5,000m: 17:17:20
6,000m: 21:19.40
10,000m: 35:54.84
My short-term running goals is to run workouts pain free again. Eventually, I want to run some 10k, half marathon and marathon roads races.
Elke's Story
Hi, I’m Elke Wijkmans, I'm 22 years old, and I’m a distance runner from the Netherlands.
I started running when I was around 9 just because my dad and older sister were running and I wanted to be like them. This developed and I started to love the progress of getting faster and pushing myself.
I signed up to study and run in the USA with the idea to only go for one year. I ended up staying for 4 years. My second year of college, I struggled a lot with health issues. I found out I had a slow working thyroid and low iron. I took a step back, skipped my indoor season, and focussed on recovering. This worked and I ran a couple big PR’s in my outdoor season.
My last 1.5 years of college, I had an Achilles injury. I tried to manage this injury by decreasing my mileage and increasing my crosstraining, mainly on the elliptical. Luckily, despite my injury, I ran some pretty good race and ended my college career with two NAIA All-American medals.
I decided to join PPRC Elite because I loved working with Coach Matt during my time at SMU. Coach Matt had only been my coach for one cross country season (2023), but he always kept in contact. He called me and gave me advice before my first NAIA nationals race.
When we were both at NAIA Indoor Nationals 2025, Coach Matt coached me during my race even when he wasn’t officially my coach. He took his time to talk to me after a disappointing DNF. His encouragement, his insight, and mainly his belief in me, helped me get over this disappointment.
It was a no brainer when coach Matt asked me if I wanted to join team PPRC and work with him again after college. Coach Matt emphasises having fun with running and recovering from my injury before anything else.
