Athlete: Joe Sheeran
Age: 57
Residence: Ellensburg, WA
Career: College administrator
Family: Health & Injuries
Club: Club Northwest
Lifetime PRs:
5K track: 14:10
10K track: 28:55
20K road: 1:01:28
Marathon: 2:15:05
How to Plan Your 2025 Race Schedule:
5K road: 16:05
10K road: 32:55
Half Marathon: 1:15
Marathon: 2:46
With two running careers separated by 21 years off because of injury, Joe Sheeran of Washington state has won five national masters age-group titles and hopes to add a sixth one at the U.S. club cross-country championships, December 12 in San Francisco.
Sheeran, who turns 58 later this month, runs four times a day, 85 miles a week, despite continuing foot problems that caused his two-decade hiatus from running. “I enjoy the outdoors and running high mileage,” says Sheeran, who ran a 2:15 marathon in 1983 and refuses to reduce his volume despite pleas from his coach. “I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
Marathon Man: After he was a nine-time All-American in track and cross-country at Eastern Illinois University, Sheeran turned to the marathon to try to qualify for the 1984 Olympic Marathon Trials. He qualified with room to spare, running 2:15:05 for second place at the 1983 Dallas White Rock Marathon. At the time, Sheeran trained 110–115 miles a week. He did not run the trials because he felt he was not in marathon shape in ’84.
Military Service: Looking for support to travel internationally and compete, Sheeran enlisted in the Air Force in 1983, because he’d heard about the U.S. armed forces team that raced abroad. Stationed in Ohio, Sheeran worked on maintenance of cryptography machines, the same kind of apparatus seen in the award-winning World War II film, “The Imitation Game.”
Running Abroad: As a member of U.S. armed services teams, Sheeran competed in military track and cross-country events in Britain, Germany, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. In two of his highlights, Sheeran took the bronze medal in the 1983 World Military Cross Country Championships in Algiers, and in 1985 won a military 10,000 meters on the track outside London in 29:12.
Ankle Injury: Soon after leaving the Air Force following his four-year tour of duty in 1987, Sheeran developed a right ankle problem, which became chronic. At the time, living in Columbus, Ohio, and working as a maintenance man, Sheeran lacked the funds for medical care. He hoped the ankle would heal. But whenever he tried running, the pain was too severe. Sheeran stopped running—as it turned out, for 21 years. He gained 20 pounds and was miserable.
Medical Help: In 2008, by then living in Washington and working at Central Washington University with his wife, an anthropology professor at CWU, Sheeran sought medical intervention. He was found to have a leg-length discrepancy. A pair of orthotics and a heel lift got him back on the road. While the ankle still bothered him on occasion, Sheeran worked back up to 40 to 50 miles a week. In his first race, on a dare, he teamed with a college friend to run the 5K in a duathlon relay in Illinois. Sheeran, then 50, ran 16:05. He and his buddy, who raced the 10K bike leg, won the team competition.
Masters Titles: Increasing his mileage, Sheeran started collecting age-group titles in the 50–54 and then 55–59 divisions. The victories ranged from 5K cross-country to 10K on the track to 15K on the roads. Sheehan gave up the marathon after running a disappointing 2:46 at Eugene, Oregon, in 2010. After coming through 20 miles in 2 hours even, Sheeran hit the wall. “It was horrible,” he said.
Training Time: Sheeran, 5-foot-8 and 140 pounds, does a few miles before and after work and five miles on his lunch hour. Sheeran’s fourth run of the day comes at night, when he goes back to the CWU campus to use the gym. Then he does a hard two miles on the treadmill, working on his form, totaling about 15 miles for the day. With breaks here and there, Sheeran said he logs about 85 miles a week by himself.
Natural Runner: Sheeran, who serves at an animal shelter and on an environmental commission, has maintained a vegan diet for 30 years and says that healthy eating is a big factor in his racing success. After his lunchtime run, instead of a regular meal, Sheeran “nibbles on a stash of vegan foods I keep in a file cabinet.”
Good Grades: A CWU exercise science professor, Dr. Leo D’Aguisto, whom Sheeran calls his “campus coach,” has found Sheeran to be a remarkable fitness specimen in physiological tests. Even in his 50s, Sheeran has shown excellent running economy and achieved a VO2 max of 75, something close to the world-class level.
Foot Problems: While Sheeran will not take D’Aquisto’s advice to tone down his mileage, he has developed problems in both feet requiring physical therapy. One foot pronates severely, the other foot supinates severely, and two years ago he broke a metatarsal bone in a cross-country race.
Long Layoff: Even with his injuries, Sheeran feels his long layoff in mid-life was a blessing in disguise. He said he probably would have overdone his training and racing during that period and not been able enjoy his current masters success. “It worked out for the best,” he said.
Club Championships: Coming up in San Francisco, at Golden Gate Park, Sheeran hopes to repeat as national 55–59 club 10K cross-country champion. Last year, at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, Sheeran ran 34:48 to triumph by 22 seconds with the top masters age-graded rating of 93.52 percent. He’s hoping his feet hold up.
Marc Bloom’s high school cross-country rankings have played an influential role in the sport for more than 20 years and led to the creation of many major events, including Nike Cross Nationals and the Great American Cross Country Festival. He published his cross-country journal, Harrier, for more than two decades.
