Teacher wins OUC Orlando Half-Marathon

Joe Farrand trained this summer for two big events in his life — a half-marathon and parenthood. He has proven to be a success at both.

Farrand, an Orlando resident who teaches music at Spring Lake Elementary School, in Ocoee, participated in his fourth half-marathon Dec. 4 and claimed first place overall and the top spot on the winner’s podium. One of his photos shows him on the winner’s block holding his daughter, 4-month-old Jane.

He finished the 13.1-mile race at Lake Eola with a time of 1:08:05 — and although he had hoped for a better time, he still walked away with a new personal best, beating his old time by 40 seconds. There to cheer the 30-year-old runner on to victory were Jane; his wife, Monica; his sister, Maggie Farrand, who ran the accompanying 5K; and a neighbor, Ben Rust, who rode his bike alongside Joe Farrand for the last couple miles.

His principal, Patty Harrelson, is very supportive, as well, he said. While she wasn’t there in person for the race, she made sure to watch the live stream of the run.

Farrand said he started his training program in June, giving him about five months to train.

“I was really excited to run,” he said. “Over the summer, a lot of days, I was training twice a day — so I would run easy in the morning and either run easy in the afternoon or do some weights at the YMCA. And then during the school year, once school started, I start running basically just in the morning so I’m out the door at 5 or 5:15.

“I run anywhere from eight to 15 miles a day and anywhere from 70 to 80 miles a week,” he said.

He also runs every day.

“I took one day off this training cycle, but it was the day after my daughter was born,” he said. “I was really tired.”

He said he typically runs the shorter races, the 5K and 10K events, and he has several Track Shack events on his schedule for the winter and spring, but he said he’s hoping to run his first full marathon next fall.

“I’d like it to be on a fast and flat course,” Farrand said. “The U.S. Olympic Trials for the marathon released their standards earlier this week. … The standard is two hours, 18 minutes — so I think that with a year or two of hard training, my goal is to run that. Chicago or Indianapolis — they both have really great marathons in the fall.”

He said he has about a two-year window to run 2:18 and qualify for the Olympic Trials. In 2020, close to 200 men qualified, and several of his close friends made the cut.

Farrand has been running since his high school and college days, participating on teams at Raytown High School, in Kansas City, Missouri, and at Simpson College, in Indianola, Iowa.