“Life is a single person’s game; you only lose if you are not enjoying it.” - Joe Farrand
By Kelly Joy — May 2024
Photos provided by Joe Farrand
Life for me over the last few weeks has been hectic. Finding time to sit and be, has been hard. Let me clarify that my presumed laziness is actually a result of being the mother of three boys under 16 years old, its end of school and, now we are in the trenches of summer, it’s pretty wild. I share this because finding time to interview and then write up Joe’s story is something I wanted to dedicate “quiet concentrated time” to. Giving myself the time and space to be thoughtful and articulate, because, after meeting Joe, the impression I got of him was exactly that; thoughtful, tenacious, and articulate, with a calm radiating from him as he talked about, and I am sure how pursues his goals and dreams.
This is Joe’s story; I am honored to share it with you. One of the things I like about this side writing gig of mine is all the amazing people I get to meet and interview. All shapes and sizes, abilities and backgrounds, different families, and jobs, but the thing that ties them all together, aside from a love of running is an infallible drive to be better, do better and achieve. Forever striving for their dreams and goals. In Joe, this drive felt tangible like it was a living and breathing thing.
When Joe picked up the phone, the thing that first struck me was his energy, it buzzed down the line, it felt light, buoyant, and happy. After chatting that is exactly what Joe is as a human, light, buoyant and happy.
So, who is Joe Farrand you ask, well let me tell you……
Joe is a 32 year old elementary school music teacher from Kansas City, Missouri, who now resides and teaches in Florida with his wife of 8 years (they were high school sweethearts) and two children, a 2 year old daughter and 9 month old son.
In December 2023, Joe ran the Californian International Marathon (CIM) in 2 hours and 21 minutes WOW, but this also happened to be his FIRST EVER MARATHON – um GULP and WOW and maybe I’ll throw another WOW in there as this is pretty mind blowing. Especially, because at the time his son was a mere 3 months old, and he and his wife were in the thick of it with sleepless nights plus learning to care for two kids in tandem, then to train and work a full time job on top.
But where does all this speed and talent come from, you ask, well let me dig into that and let us begin.
Let’s start at the very beginning……
That’s a very good place to start! (From the Sound of Music by the way). Both of Joe’s parents were runners, however in middle school and high school Joe was a swimmer along with being a runner, he went to Simpson College, Iowa to study music, this was also a D3 college for running, which was great for Joe as they gave him a flexible schedule to study and run. However, sadly for Joe , as with many young people running in college, he only had one healthy season, his junior year qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country meet and winning indoor conference 3k and 5k. But Joe just couldn’t stay strong, the reason being, he never let himself rest, a fatal mistake for many a young athlete striving to achieve, in his Freshman year Joe sustained a stress fracture in his tibia.
As I mentioned, like many young athletes, Joe did not rest and was also not eating properly to fuel his running, pizza, burgers and candy a feast of kings, not of running. He explains his track coach Heath Moenck, was a good man and worked hard to help Joe to be flexible, as a music student, school was “a lot.” Even with an injury Joe continued to cross train like a “crazy person,” his words not mine, racking up 12 hours a week on the elliptical, and as Joe says, “that was how it was for me.”
What I love about Joe is how honest he is about himself, his failings as a person and successes, it is refreshing to meet people who see themselves and share themselves in their rawest form, which is a gift to our present age of embellishment and oversharing.
With running on hold while Joe studied and tried to get healthy he graduated in 2014 and decided to take a year off, by working odd jobs and hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2015. He left with a friend and covered the 2200 miles of the infamous trail. Joe admits this was a wonderful experience that was challenging both mentally and physically. It enabled him to spend time in thought, he was 22 years old, and he felt up until this point he was always thinking about other people, always trying to keep up, then he realized that “no one truly cares what others are up to, as life is a single persons game.”
“This trip enabled me to grow up and mature, I had to problem solve, I had to develop, and because of this I now find it easier to be around people.”
After a couple of years finding himself travelling and working, in 2016 Joe and his high school sweetheart Monica were married, and Joe starts his first teaching job.
Let us talk about running.
What about his running? That is what we all want to know, right? However, as I have said before, to understand someone’s running you need to comprehend their beginning and what’s makes them uniquely them. Put it this way it did not surprise me when Joe told me he was competitive and continually trying to improve himself. However, sadly our running star had fallen into a destructive cycle of training.
“I had fallen into a cycle of self-coaching which involved :- train hard for 6 months, then I would get injured, I would spend 2 months cross training and then start to run again.”
This unhealthy rotation continued for eight solid years. Then the running angels descended from above in the form of Enoch Nadler from the Florida Track Club and Matthew Hensley, Boulder Underground.
Injured talent to running protégé.
It is February 2023 and emerging from an injury sustained training for the Indianapolis half marathon Joe was struggling again to get, be and stay healthy, he reached out to Enoch Nadler for some guidance with his running form. He describes Enoch as a “force of nature,” who in his day was a 2:13 marathoner. Joe describes his journey and Enoch gives him 3 hours of his time, looking at Joes’ form and fixing it. He then proceeds to share Boulder Underground’s head coach Matt Hensley’s number with our running hero. Thus, begins his comeback!
We discuss what it is about Matt’s coaching style that resonates with Joe?
“It is having someone give me permission to work hard but to also rest. Matt makes training easy and clear; he doesn’t ask you to do too much. This makes it doable mentally for me and I can be home by 6:30am.”
“Matt gives me a lot of confidence, he explains the workout’s, he progresses them slowly and is very honest about the abilities of his athletes.”
Which as runners is something we all need, otherwise we would train ourselves into the ground. With Matt’s methodical guidance, Joe is now able to start building the blocks and reach his goal of an Olympic trials standard in the marathon. Talking of the marathon, I ask….
“Why the marathon?”
“Because it’s selective and challenging, it is focused on ability, training hard, plus to watch the marathon it is so exciting and inspiring to see these runners perform.”
I as the writer have many thoughts because the marathon, as all who run it know, is a continually evolving race no matter how many times you attempt it. Each time the conditions change, your body changes, the course varies, you may not fuel enough, or get enough sleep. Everything may go wrong in the lead up and you can PR, you can do everything right then crash and burn at mile eighteen. To me the marathon is comparable to our journey through life, it unfolds with time and is unpredictable, exciting, mesmerizing, wondrous, hard, heart breaking, exhausting, painful, its all the things that make us human and what makes life tangible, it is emotive and then completely unemotional, it is whatever you make it to be. AND that my friends is what keeps people coming back to run, race, and face that unwavering 26.2 miles.
CIM (Californian International Marathon) December 2023 this was Joe’s first attempt at the marathon and his goal of Olympic trial qualification. In August, his son is born, Joe then has a checkup and as we discussed “life happens,” the doctors detect Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (basically a condition that reduces blood flow to the heart) which was scary and threw his marathon in to the box called “unknown.” All through the Fall it was hanging over his head as he got further tests. By the middle of October, he finally got clarity from an MRI and his heart thankfully was fine. “PHEW” we all cry. Bring on the marathon…. Joe ran, it was hard and so much fun, he was just grateful to be alive, crossing the line in 2 hours and 21 minutes.
How does he do it all? Full time job, two children, one a baby, his wife Monica is also working full time. Joe explains they have a balance, and it also helps that his sister lives in Orlando nearby. He also wants to mention that his wife is also amazing, she is very supportive and in her own right an amazing sports woman. She swam in college, played college ice hockey, she runs, has qualified for the Half Ironman World Championships, and has also run a 3 hour 23 minutes marathon, literally they are Florida’s power couple.
From talent to success.
As with many interviews we can get caught up in the physical timed achievement, and from Joe’s time at CIM he is clearly gifted and talented at running. However, in this life we cannot rely on ability alone, many other factors play in to the success. Joe shares the following that makes me realize he is so very aware of the “good” in life, he feels / sees the shine and light of living, in amongst the shadows of daily toil, there are aways brights spots of love, hope and laughter.
“I am Catholic, my faith is important, and I have been blessed in my life, I am the eldest of five kids, with incredible parents, I have been blessed with the gifts I have been given and I am trying to maximize them.”
“You choose your attitude in life.”
Dear reader, as the writer of this tale, please note that never a truer sentence has been uttered.
I ask –“what is it you want to show others by your running?”
“I want to show the JOY in striving. The fun part is reaching towards and working to be the best you can be. The success is found when you are trying to improve.”
As with many of my interviews I never get to share physical space with the person I am chatting to, however more often than not I can get a sense of the essence of the individual agreeing to spend an hour of their day talking to me. On conversing with Joe, the word that sprung to mind was “ENERGY” he practically buzzed down the line, full of energy and enthusiasm. Not in a manic, gasping for breath, all-consuming whirlwind of energy kind of way, but a thoughtful, kind, articulate, happy and selectively driven energy. He sees the wonder of his life, he feels the joy of the children he teaches, the love for his family, the power of his running. He is the man who would wonder at the beauty of a rainbow, or the sun dancing over the ocean, the laughter of a child, the buzz of adrenaline of the marathon, like he is sensing it for the very first time. I officially adore these people; the world needs more of them. I have no doubt Joe will get the OTQ standard, that he will find happiness and success in all he does, and I am just very thankful he shone some his light on me for an hour.
Joe Farrand Statistics.
5 year goal in running – to get to the Olympic trials for the marathon.
5 year goal in life – More children. Save enough money so Monica can go part time and we become more financially independent.
Fuel – Science in Sport (SiS) / Nuun performance.
Sneakers of choice – Training / Hoka Mach, Racing / Nike Next %
Inspired by – Laird Hamilton (surfer) who said, “Do it long enough you will keep winning.” His wife Monica, “she is a professional and she cares for our 2 children, she is a force of nature, and incredibly hard working.” Jim Murphy (Author)- “he was a very thoughtful and powerful writer.”
Something people may not know about you. – “I am obsessed with Formula 1.” He is a new fan, but he is working through watching every race and listening to podcasts about the sport.