April 27, 2015
Graduate school is busy for anyone, but it’s even busier when you’re training to become a national marathon champion.
Jared Ward, a statistics graduate student and former BYU track and cross country runner, recently became the 2015 U.S. marathon champion after finishing third overall at the Los Angeles Marathon in March.
“It’s been better than I ever could have imagined,” Ward said of his performance in L.A. “I’ve been fortunate. I’ve been blessed.”
The L.A. marathon was only the third of Ward’s running career. He ran his first while still a BYU runner, finishing at 2:16 in the Chicago Marathon. When Ward completed his track eligibility, Ward’s coach, a former collegiate athlete turned marathon runner, suggested he train for a second. Ward finished second in the Twin Cities Marathon, clocking in at 2:14, two minutes faster than his first finishing time.
“It didn’t go amazing, but it did go pretty well considering I made some mistakes,” he said. “There’s a bit of a learning curve, so I was excited to try again.”
Ward ran the 5k and 10k during his BYU eligibility, the longest events in collegiate running. As he transitioned into training for marathons, however, Ward was surprised to find that he was much better suited to even longer distance running. In college, Ward was used to running 90-100 miles every week, but that soon became closer to 120 miles during training for this marathon. The extra work was worth it; Ward finished in just 2:12:55 in L.A.
Fitting in an extra 30 miles each week was difficult as a graduate student, and especially as a parent. Ward is married and has two young children, ages 3 and 1.
“I learned to prioritize my schedule and get in the things that are the most important. [As a result] I’ve been able to do things I love the most and still get to take my kids to the park and things like that,” Ward said.
Ward recently defended his thesis, for which he studied optimal pace strategy in marathon running. Ward decided to pursue the five-year integrated statistics program, which allows students to earn both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just five years. He had always been interested in earning an advanced degree, and felt confident that BYU would be a great place to do so.
After receiving his master’s degree later this month, Ward will continue to run as he trains for the 2016 Olympic trials next February.
In the future, Ward hopes to find some way to use his statistics degrees in sports data analysis, but for the time being, he will focus on running.
“I feel free when I run. It just feels natural, like I was built for it,” he said. “I became addicted as a kid to the thrill of trying to run faster than I ever had before, and that’s still the thrill for me.”
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