WEBSTER, N.Y. — One of the biggest road races in upstate New York will be returning this weekend. The Boilermaker 15k is sold out this year. Among the 2026 participants is Joe Whelan.
“This is going to be my second year,” he said. “It’s like a big parade, and everyone’s rushing to get to the beer tents.”
The race is 15 kilometers, which is about 9.3 miles. Whelan specializes in marathon running.
“It should be like 45 minutes — 45-46 minutes,” he smiled.
The Buffalo native started running when he was 10 years old. It turned into a scholarship at Syracuse University. Now, he lives in Webster.
“I’m an upstate New York guy and having, like, a world-class field being Utica, something I don’t want to miss,” Whelan said.
He’s currently ranked top 30 in the country for marathon running. Whelan’s efforting his third Olympic trials.
“I made it my full-time job like a little bit over a year ago. I’m in the prime right now of my career, and I want to take advantage of it,” he explained. “It’s a lot of running. It’s a lot of recovering, trying to sleep and just do the best I can.”
He’s traveled all over the world to race. He takes note of multiple throughout the country, and has even gone out to Germany to run.
“I race in a lot of different countries, and this is the one common language you speak is ‘run.’ So, it’s easy,” he laughed.
Last year, he placed 13th out of more than 8,000 runners in the Boilermaker. This year will be less competitive as he’s coming off marathon training, but Whelan still aims to place top 20. However, his favorite part is the community he runs around.
“Running is something I’ve done my whole life. But it’s hard to make friends when you’re an adult. So it’s like when you find a community like runners, it’s much easier to make friends,” Whelan said.