For those who aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of being a ranch hand, here’s a glimpse: The work weeks vary from 30 to 70 hours in length, and they require back-breaking labor like building roads and using a chainsaw for 10 hours straight, often in the scorching hot summer sun.

It’s a job that showed Joe Whelan, an elite marathoner who worked as a ranch hand in San Antonio, Texas, for the last three years, the true value of a dollar.

At the end of each shift, Whelan would get into his truck and look at the thermometer, which often read 100-plus. No one would blame him if he didn’t feel like running, but he always did. As one of an elite crop of male marathoners on the cusp of qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, he sucked it up, put on his shoes, and trained.

“When my work was done, sometimes, I felt like crap,” Whelan, who recently moved to Rochester, New York, with his girlfriend, told Runner’s World. “Then, before I could back out, I took off my work boots and put on my shoes. Once I took those first steps, it became my release at the end of the day. I got the best nights of sleep afterwards.”

It all proved worth it: At Grandma’s Marathon on June 22, 2019, Whelan ran 2:13:39, placing fourth overall for men and securing the Olympic Marathon Trials “B” standard. Next February in Atlanta, he’ll be racing against 181 other men (with more to come) who have also qualified for Trials for the chance to represent Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics.

From Broken-Down to Marathoner

Once Whelan graduated from Syracuse University in 2014, his body was taxed after four years of college running. He had suffered a femoral stress fracture and stress reactions in his tibia, as well as a broken knee cap caused by a freak ice-skating incident, which required two screws to mend.

Though he wanted to see what postcollegiate running would be like, Whelan decided to pursue other activities for a while, to let himself heal up. He moved with his girlfriend away from his hometown of Buffalo, New York, to San Antonio, where he joined his family’s rock-milling company. The manual labor led to his other odd jobs on various ranches, and it also helped make him strong again.

At the end of 2016, Whelan decided to get back into running. He had no idea where he was fitness-wise, but he signed up for his first marathon, his hometown’s Buffalo Marathon, as a New Year’s resolution. Then at the race in May 2017, he clocked a respectable debut time of 2:25:00.

“That [Buffalo Marathon] made me think I could actually do well at this, so I made a goal to make the Olympic Marathon Trials,” Whelan said. “I mapped out what I thought four years of training would look like to get the standard, and what races to do. I’m in year three now, and I still have that same schedule.”

Running, Jogging, Athlete, Long-distance running, Recreation, Individual sports, Sports, Human leg, Exercise, Muscle,
Courtesy of Joe Whelan

Those races have mainly included Grandma’s Marathon and the Austin Marathon, which won in 2018 and 2019. Each of the five marathons he’s actually raced in—not including ones he used as training runs—has seen improvement, and each offered similarities to what he’s expecting in Atlanta this February. For Grandma’s, a competitive field; and Austin, a hilly, challenging course.

There are have been tune-up races in between as well. He took the Buffalo Marathon title this past May, which he ran as a workout to prepare for Grandma’s Marathon in June.

Going All-In for Trials

Entering Grandma’s Marathon on June 22, Whelan knew he was up against an elite field that would push him to a PR or better. The only problem leading up to the race was an unexpected hip injury he got a couple weeks prior to the event. Two days before the starting gun fired in Duluth, Minnesota, he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to run.

But he did. Having trained alone, he was comfortable dropping off from the lead pack that went out too fast, instead opting to stay roughly 20 yards behind them. His conservative tactic worked, as runners faded one by one and he breezed by them. At the finish, he crossed the line in fourth with a blistering fast time of 2:13:39. His fastest mile in the race was 4:47, while his slowest was 5:09.

“I hit the standard with a full-time job,” Whelan said. “Now, I want to try and really go for it in this next build up. I want to have to time to train because I might not have the chance again.”

[Blast through a series of HIIT sessions to boost running strength and prevent injury with the IronStrength Workout.]

This summer, Whelan moved back to his neck of the woods in Rochester, New York, where his girlfriend recently started a job. He works part-time—now painting houses, rather than working on ranches—and he commits his remaining time to training. He’s less than five minutes away from some of the top American seed times entered so far for the Trials, so he feels there’s no better time to attempt an Olympic run.

To give himself the best shot in Atlanta, Whelan said he is planning to get his mileage back up to 90-mile weeks—lately, he’s been clocking 70 because of his hip—and focusing more on recovery. His coach, John Aris, has been writing his training plans, so he trusts Aris will get him back into 2:11-marathon shape, which is the time he thought he could run at Grandma’s before he tweaked his hip.

This November, Whelan is heading to the Big Apple to run the New York City Marathon, which will be his last 26.2-miler before Trials. After that, he plans to sit down with Aris and dissect every marathon and training block he has completed in the last two years. Then, hopefully, the duo can devise a game plan that will optimize Whelan’s performance on race day—and maybe even live out his dream of running for Team USA.

“If I can give myself a shot at being in the top three [at Trials], I want to go for it,” Whelan said.

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Andrew Dawson
Gear & News Editor

Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.