By 
The whole town of Hathaway, Louisiana, thought Jarrett LeBlanc was going to the Olympics when he was in high school. In a class of 28, he stood out with a 4:30 mile time.
“I knew I wasn’t a big deal, but my hometown thought I was the fastest thing around,” LeBlanc, 29, told Runner’s World.
When kids his age blew past him at the state championships in high school, he was humbled a bit, but he still had dreams of competing against the best in the world someday. In 2008, he walked on to the team at Louisiana’s McNeese State University.
More From Runner's World
In college, he ran a 10K PR of 29:48 and contributed as the fifth runner on his cross-country squad. It was fast, but not fast enough to run for a living, as he hoped to after graduation in 2012. His coach told him he was done, but he had other plans.
After graduation, LeBlanc wanted to run sub-4:00 in the mile. Keeping up a rigorous training plan while studying to be an ultrasound technician at the Southern Medical Corporation School of Ultrasound in Louisiana wasn’t easy, but the runner was determined. In May 2015, he finally met his goal by running 3:59.95 at the Cowboy Elite Mile.
Along the way, he also discovered a skill he hadn’t know existed before: maintaining a fast pace over long runs. “I’d crush these 15-mile runs at like 2:20-marathon pace,” he said.
LeBlanc set his sights on a marathon, and he started by racing a half marathon at the 2015 Houston Marathon as a tune-up to see what he could do. He finished in 1:04:19, which qualified him for the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials.
While he had high hopes for his marathon debut at the 2016 Trials, back-to-back injuries thwarted his buildup. Still, the runner went on to finish the race in 2:29:30.
More than two years later, after several cross-country moves, a long break, and a slow comeback to marathoning, LeBlanc qualified for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials by running 2:13:52 at the 2018 California International Marathon (CIM).
A Brief Retirement
The 2020 Trials will be a redemption race for LeBlanc, who’s had several highs and lows in his running career over the past four years.
Around the same time as the 2016 Trials, he took a cardiovascular ultrasound position in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But while his professional life was excelling, his wheels began to fall off in his running career.
At the 2016 10-Mile Championships in October, he finished in a disappointing 49:10. “I got across the line and retired,” he said. “I had done my [sub-four minutes] mile. I did a solid marathon. I was done.”
Throughout the winter and spring of 2017, LeBlanc stayed fit by going to the gym. He put on 20 pounds of muscle and felt healthier. Running was still on his mind, but he wasn’t ready to go out and race again.
By May, he felt rested and prepared to race the Bolder Boulder 10K, but it ended up being more of a rust-buster of a race than a breakthrough, as he finished in 34:34. “It was so bad,” he said. “But that little [racing] bug came back.”
Despite the rocky start, LeBlanc gained momentum and attention from the running community as he continued racing in 2017. He signed on with Rabbit and also partnered with a coach, Terry Howell.
In January 2018, LeBlanc accepted a job at a hospital near his hometown in Louisiana, then packed his bags to move again across the country. The position required 72-hour work weeks, but only between Monday and Thursday. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, he maximized his time off by getting in long runs in the early mornings and after sundown, to avoid the sizzling Louisiana heat.
Training Down South
On his return to Louisiana, the heat was brutal, and the humidity was worse than he remembered. Over the summer, the humidity levels hover around 96 percent daily, LeBlanc said.
“It’s so thick that you sweat by the time you finish tying your shoes,” he added. “Anytime it’s cooler, I run like a dog with a wet belly. You know, like a dog getting out of the tub? They just take off.”
He registered for the 2018 CIM, with the goal of clocking an OTQ time of sub-2:19. On work days, LeBlanc’s training mostly consisted of 6.2-mile doubles before and after work. On his days off, he logged double-digit runs of between 10 and 18 miles, sometimes easy and other times at tempo pace. Sunday was reserved for his long run, which extended up to 25 miles.
The bulk of his miles were logged on pancake-flat farmland or country roads. For elevation training, he often traveled 90 minutes north just to practice the type of rolling hills he will face on the course in Atlanta.
After slogging 80- to 90-mile weeks in the heat throughout the fall, he arrived at CIM on a cool day in December 2018. LeBlanc ate the fast course up, beating the Olympic Trials standard by more than five minutes.
Final Tune-Up
After running the Silo District Marathon as a training run in April 2019, LeBlanc set his sights on racing in the elite field at the New York City Marathon in November. Unfortunately, a four-mile time trial in the heat without proper hydration wrecked his body right before he was preparing to taper for the race.
After the time trial, he had an EKG and blood work done at the hospital, and he found out he had vertigo caused by dehydration. The symptoms, including dizziness and feeling unbalanced, affected his workouts, and he ended up pulling the plug on NYC.
“My coach and I decided we didn’t need to run NYC just to show we can compete,” LeBlanc said. “It was better to not and save my body for the Trials.”
The lack of recent marathons does worry LeBlanc a bit, but his training, which has consisted of 88- to 98-mile weeks, has been solid. Most recently, he ran the All-America David Chavana 10K in Edinburg, Texas, on February 1, which he finished in 28:58 to close out a 95-mile week. The performance gave him confidence for Atlanta, he said.
“The reality is we’re fighting for three spots,” he said. “Even thinking of being in the top 10 wasn’t on my mind four years ago, but I know my fitness. Now, I’m probably the least talked about who is trying to surprise some people.”
Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand. His work has previously been published in Men’s Health.
