Peterborough man to run his 100th marathon Sunday in Ottawa

Gene Jochen is set to run his 100th marathon this weekend at the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon and Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend. Jochen ran his first marathon 15 years ago in 2003 at the Ottawa Race Weekend. 

Jochen has had extreme success on the roads despite coming to running later in life; the Peterborough, Ont. native grew up playing lacrosse as his primary sport. Jochen says he found running in his mid 30’s as a way to get his health back, “I was working in the food industry and enjoyed the food a little too much. So I started jogging, and then started doing five and ten kilometer training runs. Eventually I joined the Running Room’s Ottawa Marathon clinic. A few months later I ran my first marathon in Ottawa.” 

After Ottawa, Jochen officially had the running bug. Jochen ran his first race in 3:21:21, and missed qualifying for Boston by only 20 seconds. Four months later, he made the trip to Montreal to attempt a BQ one more time, and was successful, running a big personal best of 3:16:23. Jochen went on to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon for ten consecutive years.

Before heading to Boston in 2013, Jochen had decided that after his race he would reduce his training load, and not run Boston again for a while.

April 15, 2013 was the day of the bombing during the Boston marathon, and Jochen was just a block away when it happened. The event left him and many others distressed. 

After Boston, Jochen shifted his focus to cycling, and running for fun – he took the pressure off of his training. Jochen started coaching one athlete, who will run in Ottawa this weekend and is looking for a BQ. 

When asked about his plans post 100th marathon, Jochen says, “I would like to pick up the training again and try to go back to Boston. I’m really enjoying coaching one person. I’m also looking to do more ultramarathons later in the season. I work in travel now and move around a lot, so I’m off to Italy in a few weeks which I’m excited about.”