Joe Hardin: The 'Odd Duck' who dreams big and runs hard
From race directing to podcasting and designing bespoke awards, Joe Hardin's Odd Duck Running is bringing a running revolution to Indiana
Joe Hardin is a self-proclaimed ‘odd duck’.
In his own words, he is part of a tribe of runners who don’t fit neatly into a lane, take small steps to become unstoppable, and aren’t afraid to be different.
That’s why Joe formed Odd Duck Running, a tour de force of a company that combines race directing and beautifully quirky apparel.
It’s just one part of Joe’s love affair with running, which also sees him preparing to take part in the 314-mile (500k) Vol State ultra marathon, presenting his own podcast, and creating bespoke, wooden race awards.
He’s come a long way from the alcoholic whose life unravelled as a result of addiction. Running has been central to a journey which has seen Joe come through dark times to become an advocate for sobriety.
A love of long distances and trail running has seen him tackle runs of more than 100km, although a much desired buckle to commemorate a 100 mile finish remains tantalisingly out of reach after successive DNFs at recent attempts.
While Joe still has an eye on achieving more in his own running journey, it is a desire to give back and see others succeed which drives him forward.
The ‘Hustle’ which saw all profits go to charity:
The Odd Duck Running name formed in Joe’s mind during a series of training runs which saw him run past a waterfowl sanctuary.
“I was just getting into ultras,” he told Running Tales. “And as I was running through this waterfowl sanctuary, there was hundreds of different kinds of species of birds there.
“There’s a pair of swans that are always on the lake and they had like their babies with them, and I was running past and talking to myself.
“Maybe I’m crazy but I was just like, ‘man, those are just really odd looking ducks’. And I don’t know why that came to me, but I thought, ‘how cool would it be to start a race directing company called Odd Duck Running.”
Joe, who comes from Lebanon in Indiana, sat on the idea for a couple of years, but it didn’t go away - until one day, on another run, his brain started ticking again.
“There’s this park I run in all the time as it’s really close to my house. When I’m training for backyard ultras, I try to find the most monotonous loop to do over and over and over, to settle into not having constant input.
“But I was always thinking how cool it would be to have an event at that park.”
Joe eventually settled on the idea of holding an eight hour looped event there, naming it ‘Hustle in the Heartland’.
“I’ve done some other things at the park,” he said. “We used to do this yearly walkathon for a non-profit addiction recovery centre here in town - I was on the board.
“We’ve had some really big public speakers there, and the park has always been awesome about every idea we come up with.
“It made sense to do something there and do something local because that’s the ethos behind it all. I want to do something in my own community.
“Indiana, especially central Indiana where I live, the running space isn’t really big yet. And I thought it’d be cool to grow something here and focus more on the local grassroots.”
Proceeds from the race went to a charity called ILADD Inc, which helps adults with intellectual disabilities.
“They teach cooking courses, they have a hiking club, which is really cool. They just do everything,” Joe said.
“They help them get apartments. They’re really doing a lot of great things for people in the community.
“And we wanted to donate any money to them. The park has always been really receptive to that.
“I want to build something here. I see a lot of really great running communities outside of my perimeter where I normally am. And I felt we had a gap right here.”
The race took place for the first time last October, with Joe embracing his long time dream.
From initially being scared no-one would turn up or something would go badly wrong, he was pleasantly surprised when people started to sign-up.
“I was just thinking, ‘oh, wow, this is a real thing’. There was a realisation that I had build something.
“You can only set a stage and you just have to rely on this amazing community to show up.
“It sounds cheesy, but it’s beyond anything that I did. I had to put a lot of moving pieces together, but if you don’t have people that show up and support you, then what?
“I was really blown away by the reception, especially for my first event.”
Hustle in the Heartland has since been joined in the Odd Duck race schedule by the Big 4 Trail High-5 Classic, which is set to take place this weekend (Saturday, May 16).
That event features four, eight and 12 mile races and will take place on Indiana’s Railway Trail. Joe is hoping it will provide him, and those taking part, with as much enjoyment as Hustle in the Heartland did.
“The first time I saw somebody had PR’d at the eight hour, I was fighting hard to not cry. It was so cool that I was able to give somebody that day,” he said.
“And I saw that several times. I was so overwhelmed. There were at least six people that ran their first marathon and 15 ultra runners. It was crazy.
“I tried to catch-up with everybody that finished that day. It is a little hard when there’s so much going on, but I made it a point to at least talk with them and ask how it went.
“We were able to donate $1,200 to ILADD, which was awesome, but seeing all the PRs and hearing people’s stories was what made it all worthwhile.
“Right after my eight hour, there’s a 100K that I do every year called Jackson County 100. I was there doing the race check-in before running myself, and I saw a group of people come in - they had met at my eight hour and were hanging out together.
“These friendships had formed because of my event. Something so simple as just getting people together eight hours had hopefully formed lifetime friendships for these people.”
‘We need to recognise the absurdity of what we do’:
With the Odd Duck concept up and quite literally running, Joe started to play around with logos and other brand concepts.
The next natural step was to start adding them to apparel, including t-shirts, hats and - more recently - socks.
Joe said he has loved seeing people using the kit and enjoying the laid back ethos of Odd Duck Running.
“The running space can be way too serious,” he said, “and if that’s how your running journey is, that’s cool too.
“That’s how I was when I first started running. I got swept up in the stay hard and grind it out vibe.
“But at the end of the day, have you ever thought about how ridiculous it is, what we’re doing? It’s so crazy.
“And I thought it would be fun to, instead of leaning into whatever the current aesthetic is, to do something different, something fun and something silly.
“That’s why I kind of wanted to go with the clothing and the logo. At the end of the day, we should be at least having fun and recognising the absurdity of what we’re all doing and trying to do.
“I hope I captured that with the little duck logo.”
Joe said while he isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, he hopes he can bring that same relaxed mentality to his races.
“If you want to be serious that’s fine too, there were people that were very serious at my eight hour event,” he said.
“There were people that really threw down. It was actually very impressive. But then there were people who were there with their families.
“There was this guy who brought his six- or seven-year-old son out there. He asked if it was ok and I just said, ‘dude, absolutely, bring the entire family tree if you like’.
“His son was running with him and came up to me to say he’d run three laps. That’s about three miles, but to him that was his marathon.”
Joe said he saw every type of runner and walker at the event, as well as those from different backgrounds including “people of colour, someone in a wheelchair, a visually impaired runner with a guide”.
“I didn’t know going into it that that’s what it would be,” Joe added. “While the eight hours went on, I realised this is what Odd Duck is going to be.
“It was this unintentional thing, but it has totally changed how I’m going to view race directing forever. This is the space I want to create.
“I didn’t pick that path because I thought adaptive athletes could use it. I was ignorant to that idea until I saw it. But I knew that was exactly what we’re going to be for every single event.
“Our gender breakdown was almost 50/50. A lot of races don’t get that. A looped event, or out and back, can make women feel safer, so being able to create that space for women in the sport was a brilliant by-product of the eight hour.”
Awards, podcasting… and preparing for Laz Lake’s Vol State:
One of the hobbies Joe turned his hands to after starting out on his sobriety journey was woodworking. Since then he has honed his craft, launching his own company - Hardwood Designs - and producing stunning race awards.
More recently, he has joined forces with Jason Bahamundi, an ultra runner and the man behind endurance sports website Run, Tri, Bike, to form RTB Awards. The pair’s goal is to create custom wooden awards, medals and accessories that are able to inspire and commemorate the running community.
Joe and Jason first started working together when he began presenting his Beyond the Finish Line Podcast on Run, Tri, Bike’s Everyday Athlete Podcast Network.
He also co-hosts the What’s in your Earbuds podcast, which features conversations around what music is best to run to.
Joe said the podcast allows him to talk to awesome people in the world of running and learn more about the sport with every episode.
Becoming a host on his own show is another example of what he calls “showing up for yourself” and taking “big, scary steps” - mantras that are central to everything he does.
As if all the work Joe is doing isn’t enough, he continues to push the boundaries of his own running.
In July, he will compete in the Vol State 500, an event created and directed by Gary ‘Lazarus Lake’ Cantrell - the man behind the infamous Barkley Marathons.
A self-supported road race running from Missouri to Georgia, it starts with a ferry ride across the Mississippi River, from Missouri to Kentucky, and finishes at ‘the Rock,’ high atop Sand Mountain in Northeast Georgia.
Runners must take on the heat of Tennessee with no aid stations, crew or outside help.
“I’m having to work double time to get everything caught up so I can prepare for that,” Joe said.
“I run commute to work every day, and that’s been a huge help. If I didn’t, I don’t know if I’d be able to get my miles in because I usually have to work late at home, so I can’t really get up early for the most part.
“I get about 5k in, so the round trip is about 10k, and I get around 27 miles baked in just getting to work and back.
“And then a lot of times, I’ll get up and do a couple of miles before I leave for work, and I’ll run some extra miles with my wife because she’s training for stuff now.”
On top of that, Joe does club runs and takes to the treadmill to get vital extra miles in.
“My treadmill is in a room attached to my award shop, where I have seven laser machines.
“I have to keep them running all the time when I’m home. So, I’ll go and cut these big sheets that the finisher rewards are cut out of, throw them into the machines, get everything fired up, and hit play.
“And I’ll set an alarm, get on the treadmill and when my run is done, I’ll restart everything again.
“I’m building these little habits into everything I do.”
Zoom meetings have also been partnered with treadmill sessions, while Joe also uses the machine to provide some extra elevation.
He added: “I’ll have to carry my own gear for Vol State, so the cool thing about run commuting is that I carry my clothes and my lunch in my backpack.
“My training could maybe be more fine tuned, but with everything I’ve got going on, it’s about using any spare time to get on my feet.”
Dream big, be infinitely curious and keep muscling forward - a recipe for success:
When Joe looks at the various strands of the running universe which he has combined, he still struggles to verbalise exactly what it is he’s trying to build.
“I’ve been struggling with it,” he said. “I know I’m trying to build something but I’m not sure where all the pieces go.
“I don’t think I’ll ever know. I’ll be honest with you, I might be a lofty dreamer, and I like to dream big, but that’s what drives me.
“I wrote an article about how my ambition outweighs my ability a couple years ago. And I still feel like sometimes my ambition is way bigger than what I’m actually capable of.”
What is certain is that he has plenty more ideas, from putting on an increasing number of events to having Odd Duck coaches come onboard.
While he is the first to admit that whether he’s podcasting, race directing or designing funky socks, he remains a novice compared to many in the running world, Joe remains driven by being “infinitely curious”.
“I still don’t really know what I’m doing with race directing. I don’t really know if I’m going to be able to pull it off.
“But if you go into something knowing you can complete it or do it, to me that just sounds boring. I love living in a space where I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to find a way.
“It may not be pretty or fancy, but I’m going to muscle my way through it somehow.”
Further reading:
There was one constant throughout Joe Hardin’s sobriety journey.
But it wasn’t running. The sport has helped Joe become a more positive, happier and confident person.
But it wasn’t there for him at 3am when he woke up in his truck having blacked out at the wheel.
Read our story with ultra runner Joe Hardin here:
Sobriety, running and podcasting - the Joe Hardin story
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