Inside the Bubble:  Olympian Jared Ward's Strategy for the London Marathon and Beyond

Jared Ward is getting ready to race. He is one of the few elite
athletes that will enter the elite bubble to race the London
Marathon on October 4th. 


 


Jared is an American marathoner who placed third in the 2016 US
Olympic Trials and finished in sixth place at the Rio Olympics
later that year. In 2019, he ran a personal best in Boston,
finishing in 2:09, and then in Houston, at the half marathon in
January of 2020, he was the first American man to cross the line
in a PR of 1:01:36. 


 


With a condensed training build, Jared is now in full marathon
mode and he talks to Coach Claire about how his training is going
and what the 20-loop course in front of Buckingham Palace might
be like for him. They also discuss pandemic-related changes to
his and his family’s life and how Jared stays inspired.


 


Jared lives in Provo, Utah, and when he’s not training for
marathons for Saucony or chasing around his four little kids, he
is a professor of statistics at Brigham Young University. He
famously wrote his master’s thesis on the best way to pace a
marathon, and he was on a research team that set out to analyze
the performance advantages of rival shoe company Nike’s Vaporfly
4%. That research helped Saucony create the Endorphin Pro which
Jared wore in Boston last year for his PR performance. 


 


If you want to race against Olympic Athlete Jared Ward, sign up
for the Chaski Challenge marathon relay this Saturday, September
12th. It’s a fun run for a good cause. 


 
Questions Jared is asked:

        


3:36 First of all, what a crazy year 2020 has been!  Can you
take us back to the beginning of the year, as you trained for the
Olympic Trials in January and February, what you were imagining
2020 to look like for you?


 


5:34 What did you do with your training with no races in sight?


 


6:55 I watched an interview after the race with you and you could
have easily dropped out of that race when you knew things were
going pretty bad, and a lot of elites do that. They save their
legs for another day, but you decided that you were going to
finish the race, and I’d love to talk about what was going on in
your head at that point.


 


12:50 Speaking of family, how are you handling four kids at home,
home schooling, training, all of the craziness that we parents
are going through right now?


 


14:20 Another interesting fact about you is that you take one day
off of running each week because of your faith.  Can you
talk about this and how it affects your training?


 


17:05 Let’s talk about London. You have announced that you are
going to be one of the few elites running the London Marathon on
October 4.  Can you tell us how that came about?  


 


19:55 Let’s talk about the logistics of the London Marathon. It’s
just loops around the park, right?


 


20:05 Are they allowing spectators for the London Marathon?


 


20:55 You obviously had to get special permission for travel and
all of that. What are the logistics of traveling as an American
to Europe right now?


 


21:16 Do you know how big the field for the London Marathon is
yet?


 


22:06 Any predictions for the London Marathon, or is it just too
crazy to even try to predict?


 


22:51 I would imagine that this type of course (London Marathon)
would actually really play to your strengths. You’re a
statistician, is that correct? And so you like the mathematical
advantage of a 20-loop course?


 


24:14 On Saturday, September 12, you are headlining the men's
elite virtual marathon relay called the Chaski Challenge, which
is another virtual event put on by Tyler Andrews at Chaski
Endurance.  Can you talk about that and what it's all
about?  


 


26:38 So the Chaski Challenge is not a treadmill race? You can do
this one outside?


 


28:23 What's next after London?


 


30:33 If racing can be done safely, then maybe it should be done,
right?






Questions I ask everyone:


 


31:27 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first
started running, what advice would you give yourself?


 


32:31 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?


 


32:56 Where can listeners connect with you?




Quotes by Jared:

 


“I think it’s important for kids to see that even when it’s hard,
it doesn’t mean we have to quit. We don’t have to give up.”


 


“I’ve come to appreciate now as a more seasoned marathoner that
it’s a lot more about getting in enough training to unlock
lifetime fitness than it is about some perfect marathon training
block that tees the race up perfectly.”


 


“The Chaski Challenge on September 12th is creating an
opportunity in a running world with fewer opportunities now than
there were a year ago.”






Take a Listen on Your Next Run


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Mentioned in this podcast: 

 


Chaski Challenge


Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community


RunnersConnect Facebook page


claire@runnersconnect.net


 


Follow Jared on:


 


Instagram


Twitter






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