Meet Joe Whelan - the guy who was working 30-70 hours a week as a Texas ranch hand - but still managed to run 2:13 at Grandma's

where wrote:

strava link?

I'd definitely be curious to see this. Tried to find him on there with no luck.

Super cool story, though. I never understand how people hate on stuff like this, but whatever. I'm excited to follow his path in the future. I think he could be a super dark horse for the trials. If conditions are tough and a few guys are not at the top of their game, he could just find himself on the team.

NJ Scofflaw wrote:

Determined people do it if they have to. John walker had a full time job at a quarry in the prime of his career.

"I'd either run to work at six in the morning or I'd run from 11 to 12," Walker says. "Half of that was my lunch hour, and half of it was unpaid time. I used to run as hard as I possibly could within that hour. I'd run 10 miles religiously every day, in 53 or 54 minutes. Then I still had six minutes left to shower and get a bite to eat."

https://www.si.com/vault/1991/12/23/125701/sub-four-at-40-john-walker-runs-toward-his-goal-to-become-the-first-40-year-old-to-break-the-four-minute-mile

Sorry to be a myth buster, but:

As much as I admire Walker, it wasn't as if he was bustin' rock at the bottom of the pit, he worked in the office at said quarry.

And not to take away from Whelan's achievements, he worked as a "manager" at his family's rock milling company (it makes little rocks out of big ones) in Texas, per the RW story.

Are you kidding me? Hard core 70 hour weeks become a Cush family gig as manager at a family business? What is the truth?

I live in texas and run in the heat it aint easy but if want it you got to do it temp dont matter

Montesquieu wrote:

I just want to underscore what is in many ways the most interesting part of this story: Whelan is coached by John Aris, son of Bill, coach of Fayetteville-Manlius High School. Percy Cerutty is smiling from the beyond.

Do you blokes realise Cerutty broke most of the runners he coached/advised?

This bloke is tough until he's not, but I wish him all the best.

Some bloke. wrote:

Montesquieu wrote:

I just want to underscore what is in many ways the most interesting part of this story: Whelan is coached by John Aris, son of Bill, coach of Fayetteville-Manlius High School. Percy Cerutty is smiling from the beyond.

Do you blokes realise Cerutty broke most of the runners he coached/advised?

This bloke is tough until he's not, but I wish him all the best.

Got to crack a few eggs to make a omelet.

Nothing. That’s nothing. One time I drove for Uber for 72 hours straight excepting everything all right. Every single ride. And then I drove for Lyft another 72 hours straight, accepting every single ride. This took me from San Diego to Denver. By then my car was completely wasted. So I drove it to a landfill and left it there. Then I started running. I set every record for 72 hours, 144 hours, 296 hours, and 296 hours, and two weeks and three weeks and four weeks, including all of the records that Forrest Gump would’ve said if he was real, and also Jim Walmsley, and that Jornet guy, and all of the distance guys, I broke all of their records by a factor of about three, and then I donated all of the money that I earned from the trip to charity, except for the part that I kept for my expenses, and for promotional purposes. And then I posted it all to the Internet on various social media platforms, and the world welcomed me into its arms, and everybody loved me and that was the way it was. For real. No, really I mean it.

Wolfjaw wrote:

I live in texas and run in the heat it aint easy but if want it you got to do it temp dont matter

True dat. I lived in Austin from '91 to '96 and I ran every single weekday winter and summer over lunch. 12 to 1pm. People thought I was nuts but I became used to it and it didn't bother me. Now I live in the SF Bay Area still run at lunch but there's no way I could hammer out noontime runs in Austin. It'd take me some time to acclimate, if I even could now.

Disclaimer: Not a 2:13/sub 15 guy and didn't make $250K (I know you're shocked) but I was running sub 3 then and I think I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.

omlam wrote:

malmo wrote:

In 1964 Bill Dellinger worked in a lumber mill pulling green chain. It's hard physical work. He looked at every movement as training, and did it show over the last lap of the Tokyo 5000m. While Bob Schul took the gold on that sloppy cinder track, Dellinger was digging in deep. You could see it in his arms, all of that lifting gave him the strength to nail down the Bronze medal at the finish.

Or he wouldn't have been as fatigued and won the gold. We'll never really know;)

Norpoth outkicked Dellinger and he looked like he'd have trouble getting his fork to his mouth.

SurelyYouJest wrote:

Sounds a little fishy, but hey, Runners World. Running in 100 degrees after working outside all day, every day? Nunh-unh.

I’ve been following the guy on Strava for a while (few years maybe? Not sure). Yeah, it’s true- hard outdoor work and running in south Texas heat. . You can tell by time of day he runs- and where he runs. He puts in the work- both ways.

Well ok but its actually true wrote:

SurelyYouJest wrote:

Sounds a little fishy, but hey, Runners World. Running in 100 degrees after working outside all day, every day? Nunh-unh.

I’ve been following the guy on Strava for a while (few years maybe? Not sure). Yeah, it’s true- hard outdoor work and running in south Texas heat. . You can tell by time of day he runs- and where he runs. He puts in the work- both ways.

Where is this mysterious Strava account for Joe? It appears to not exist.

Concentration arms wrote:

omlam wrote:

Or he wouldn't have been as fatigued and won the gold. We'll never really know;)

Norpoth outkicked Dellinger and he looked like he'd have trouble getting his fork to his mouth.

Imagine if LRC was around back then.

For those inept at the internet:

https://www.strava.com/pros/joey-whelan-10349357

Yeah well, Norpoth was coached by Ernst Van Aaken who believed you had to be skeletal and do long slow distance, so friggin long you had barely any time to eat between running and sleeping.

themanontherun wrote:

rojo wrote:

We got the name of where he ran his 2:13 wrong. It was Grandma's. The interesting thing is he's run 4 marathons this year.

Here are his 2019 marathons.

Marathon

2:17:04 SB 1 Austin TX 17 Feb

2:25:47 1 Waco TX 28 Apr

2:22:04 1 Buffalo NY 26 May

2:13:39 PB (354) 4 Duluth MN 21 Jun

He accepted a can of beer at the infamous Mile 24 of the Buffalo Marathon and chugged it without breaking stride.

Probably safe to call it the famous Mile 24, after that.

lorde wrote:

For those inept at the internet:

https://www.strava.com/pros/joey-whelan-10349357

Thanks man, amazing that Joe Whelan and J Whelan and Joseph Whelan did not come up in the search. I didn't even think of Joey.

Super cool to see his training, though. He does less mileage than I was thinking. All really simple stuff, though. 60 to 70 minutes easy every day, one fartlek style workout mid-week that is usually medium long, and one long run that's sometimes faster and sometimes easy.

Heaven forbid, I'm not body shaming, HONEST!!! wrote:

Yeah well, Norpoth was coached by Ernst Van Aaken who believed you had to be skeletal and do long slow distance, so friggin long you had barely any time to eat between running and sleeping.

Van Aaken was North's coach. But North really did not run all that much. He had plenty of time for eating and sleeping.

Apparent auto correct issue. "...was NORPOTH'S coach."