10.09.07

Interview with Marc Jeuland

Posted in Interview, Jeuland's Musings at 7:32 am by Dave

Tell us a little about yourself, Marc.

I was born and grew up in Chicago, in a multicultural household. My mother is American and from a small town in southeast Kansas; my father is from the region of Brittany in France. My siblings (an older sister and younger brother) and I were raised bilingual, and were enrolled in a French-American school from an early age. We traveled to France often for summer vacations, and these trips instilled in me an adventurous spirit, and a real passion and desire to see and experience new things.

I graduated from Lincoln Park High School in 1997 and moved to Swarthmore College in the fall of that year. My sister, also a Swarthmore alum, inspired me to choose that small liberal arts college, emphasizing its strengths: excellent teaching, the presence of professors devoted to undergraduate education, the intellectual nature of the community, and the natural beauty of the campus. My Swarthmore years (following a strong
foundational education at Lincoln Park High School) would indeed give me confidence and refine the analytic thought processes of my mind. These things helped me in turn to find my place as a PhD student in graduate school (at UNC-Chapel Hill).

Swarthmore, however, did leave me with a feeling of having a bit of an empty heart. The activism on campus often did not appeal to me, for various reasons, and after graduating in 2001 I joined the Peace Corps as a water and sanitation engineer. I was thrilled to learn that I would be sent to Mali, in French-speaking West Africa, and I soon made my home in its capital city, Bamako. In Mali, I learned many cultural lessons and found a subject I could be passionate about:
delivering water services to people in poor countries. I worked on various projects in Bamako, the most important of which was to design a pilot-scale low-tech natural pond system for treating sewage collected from latrines. Though I am not certain this project was ever fully successful in alleviating any major sanitation problems in Bamako, the experience gave me new-found appreciation for the importance and difficulty of solving such problems in the developing world. My graduate research has allowed me to explore
a number of health and water-related policy problems, from economic evaluation of vaccines, to the evaluation of rural water supply projects in Africa and South America, to planning problems in the Nile River basin.

When and how did you get started running?

I grew up playing soccer, a sport at which I was rather mediocre. My greatest strength on the field was my ability to run and wear down opponents over the course of a long game, which explains why I was often placed in the midfield and considered a playmaker. I could not really score, so was never considered much of an offensive threat unless I could play the ball to someone more adept at finding the back of the net, and I was really not much of a defender either. My junior year, my brother (who was then
a freshman in high school) decided he wanted to join the track team in the spring, and asked me if I would accompany him. I agreed. We started running. Over the course of that year, I discovered that I might make a pretty decent distance runner. Lincoln Park HS, and other public schools in Chicago, however, did not have much in terms of facilities and coaching for sports teams. Our coach, Ms. Wallace, was a converted gym teacher, who did not have any particular expertise or affinity for running, but who
did enjoy working with students and wanted us to have the opportunity to compete. We would run on a track 45 minutes from school for meets; otherwise, we ran around the halls of the school (when the weather was bad or the days were short) or a small neighborhood park near the school. I think I probably ran about 15-20 miles a week while in high school, and was proud to make the state meet in the 2 mile run my senior year (running a 10:33 and finishing dead last by a lot, purely because my qualifying section
- the city - was so weak).

I ran track and cross country in college, abandoning soccer after one unfulfilling college season as a freshman at Swarthmore. At Swarthmore, I struggled to find something I could be passionate about with my studies and work, and to find the aspects of my life that gave me energy. In such an academic and ideologically-charged environment, I felt like those around me really scorned the things I found valuable personally (such as running and religion).

What types of races do you feel suit your strengths?

For me, this question is easy. I feel like I most excel at the longer distance events. I run efficiently but not powerfully, and I have a small frame. I have had the most success at the marathon distance, though my times in shorter events have improved since I switched to focus on the longer races. I still think I can improve.

What type of workout gives you the most confidence?

The workout that gives me the most confidence is my weekly long run. I feel like its benefits are twofold. For one, I teach my body to endure the grueling pain of running something very similar to a marathon. My long runs typically take me over challenging terrain, with rolling hills or sometimes steep uphills and downhills. If I can maintain a steady pace for two + hours once a week, I think that the marathon is not such a big deal anymore. Secondly, a hard long run requires me to take it easy once a week, and
to stay dedicated to a yoga practice of stretching and relaxation on Mondays. While I sometimes run shorter distances on Monday to accompany the yoga, this dedication to planned and necessary recovery is what enables me to tackle each week’s mileage total with a fresh mind and fresh legs.

I like speed workouts that force me to increase my effort throughout, but that do not throw me over the edge so that I end up tanking at the end. Thus, I like workouts that focus on cutting rest while I am still fresh, and then perhaps lengthen it as I tire, all while getting faster or staying consistent on the time spent running the intervals. I also have always liked steady workouts: i.e. mile repeats at a fast but manageable pace, or fartlek workouts that follow a predictable route and pattern. I do not do
well with very large pace fluctuations, and my ability to run anaerobically is not very good.

What type of workout do you like the least, but that you know you get a lot of benefit from?

Probably mile repeats with pace changes on the track, although I am not sure if they give me high benefits. In general, I am not entirely sure what works best in my speed and strength sessions.

What interests do you have outside of running?

I enjoy working on the Board of Outreach and Service at my church, working with a Burmese refugee family adopted by the church, watching movies with friends or my wife, doing crossword puzzles, and trying new restaurants or recipes.

How does WorkoutLog make your life easier?

WorkoutLog is most useful for communicating regularly with our coach. The fact that she can check what I am doing daily and keep tabs on aches and pains or any other issues without explaining a sequence of events over email is really important. I also like the fact that you can add information on your running routes and keep track of your times over a specific loop throughout and across training cycles.

Related Posts:

25k PR :)

a little YouTube action for Jabaut

The unexpected benefits of the CAC blog

Permalink