Ethan Nedeau won the OCR world championship in the 40-44 AG this weekend. We thought we would celebrate by sharing a profile of him that his wife Kim wrote for our Sept/Oct 2014 edition of the magazine.
by Kim Nedeau
For Ethan a sign of a well-trained body isn’t just a mileage total at the end of the week. It’s about calloused hands, grip strength, max number of pull-ups, and how far a sixty pound log can be carried. He is constantly pushing his limits by training in conventional and unconventional ways. It has been fun to watch him embrace diverse endurance training, and his commitment to remain fit, but not injured, in his forties. A mid-life crisis could certainly have worse outcomes. Ethan finds a balance between family time and workout time and is often pulling double duty on the playground. Many times I have watched as Ethan and our two children throw their shirts in the grass and spend the next hour climbing up the fireman pole, traversing monkey bars, or crawling like bears in the grass. He rigged a double sled and harness to pull the kids through the snow and takes them on long wheelbarrow rides on our hilly dirt road (often while also wearing a weight vest). Ethan’s workouts have gained notoriety and raised some eyebrows among his running friends. My own training is 100% influenced by his creativity and playfulness.
Ethan began his running career like many others, focusing on track and cross country in high school and while at UMass Amherst. His PRs are 1:53 for 800M, 2:27 for 1000M, 3:52 for 1500M, 8:27 for 3000M, 25:01 for 8000M (XC). After tearing a lumbar disc at twenty-six, he didn’t run a step for more than five years and traded in his running shoes for cycling cleats. When I first met Ethan, his quads were at least ten times larger than they are now; I think he could barely walk. He was able to start running again at age thirty-one, though he loathed even a single mile on blacktop. In the winter he continued with his zero road tolerance by completing all of his mileage in snowshoes, but it still would be another handful of years before he began to race on snowshoes.
Fast forward a few years and Ethan is now a top obstacle course racer (arguably his best sport) and a top master’s runner in all disciplines: mountain, snowshoe, track, and even the dreaded road! Currently, he is training for 2014 Spartan World Championships, the final two events in the USATF-NE All Terrain Runner Series, and the USATF-NE cross country GPS.
When Ethan isn’t training or spending time with his family, he can be found underwater. He owns an ecological consulting business with a focus on freshwater biology and endangered species (especially freshwater mussels). He is a proud member of acidotic Racing (aR), an enthusiastic and supportive team of runners and cyclists with a strong presence in mountain races, trail races, snowshoeing, and mountain biking.
2014: Bronze medal in 40-45 age group at the USSSA Snowshoe National Championships
2014: 9:22 indoor 3000M
2014: 10th at the US Masters 10K Road Championship
2014: 5th among all 40+ runners at the US National Mountain Running Championships (Loon Mountain Race)
To read more from the Sept/Oct 2014 issue, click here.
To read from the Sept/Oct 2015 issue, click here.
