Running for more than seven hours at a time or training by running more than 80 miles a week is definitely not something for the weak of legs or faint of heart.

But for Joe Binder, a 2004 Illinois Wesleyan graduate and former Titan cross country captain, such rigorous discipline has led to being part of a United States national team that recently finished second in the world.

The 27-year-old Binder, who currently lives and works in Berkeley, Calif., was a member of the 2010 Team USA squad that competed in the International Association of Ultrarunners 100km World Championships, held November 7 in Gibraltar. Binder, who was named to the national team as an alternate earned a place in the race after an injury to a teammate and placed 25th individually with his time of 7:16:43.

“Despite coming down with a cold the week before, I was able to stick to my race plan,” said Binder, a three-year IWU cross country letterman. “It was an amazing experience to get to represent the United States in an international athletics competition and unbelievable to earn the same national team gear as the 2008 Olympians received.”

The second place team finish represented the highest in a decade for the U.S. men's team. Japan was the international winner and Shinji Nakadai of Japan won the individual title in 6:43:44.

Binder qualified for the U.S. national team in April, when he ran his first 50-mile road race in 5:37:46, and heaps praise and credit on his college coach Chris Schumacher. “Coach Shoe encouraged me so much while I was running at IWU. I would have never gotten to where I am as an ultra-marathon runner without his support and it means a lot to me.”

Schumacher was reciprocal in lauding Binder as an athlete at Illinois Wesleyan. "Joe was the hardest working athlete we have ever had," said the Titan track and field coach. "I told him he could run around the world and it turns out that he has."

Binder plans to be even stronger next year to help the national team take a shot at the gold medal. “I'm training seven days a week and, leading up to the competition, was averaging about 85 miles a week,” he said. “I typically do long runs of 25 to 31 miles and even did one 40 mile run to prepare for the international race, going back and forth on a bike trail along San Francisco Bay. That was actually great preparation for running loops around the Gibraltar seaside.”

During the international competition in Gibraltar, Binder soaked up the experience and, of course, climbed to the top of the rock to see the Spanish and African coastlines. “Flying in was great - the airstrip is built on the isthmus that connects Gibraltar to Spain with the only road to the Spain built across it,” he said. “So all traffic on the main road has to stop when a plane comes in. The runway is also pretty short, which makes for an exciting landing.”

Binder described Gilbraltar as “a cross between a British tourist destination, a more classic-feeling southern European town and a mountain fortress.”

As for the race course set-up, options were limited. “In order to run 100k, we did 19 5k loops
through the town and the industrial port zone after running a 5k to the beginning of the first loop,” he explained. “While it was repetitious and not especially scenic, there also were not many surprises. It reminded me of running around San Francisco Bay, but it was really different from training in Bloomington!”

Binder works for BP Biofuels, using his Illinois Wesleyan scientific training to produce sustainable biofuels from dedicated energy crops. “My work includes evaluating energy grasses to see how much and how well they can be converted into fuels,” he said. “In Berkeley, I also help coordinate bioenergy research at the Energy Biosciences Institute, BP's $500 million collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.”

A native of Decatur, Ill., and 2000 graduate of Decatur St. Teresa High School, Binder graduated with honors in chemistry and physics at Illinois Wesleyan and, as a student, was awarded one of 300 national scholarships from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. He was also one of 49 college students recognized for excellence by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

At the 2002 IWU John Wesley Powell Research Conference, Binder won an award for his poster, “Derivatization of Keggin-Type Polyoxometalates.” He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, was a member of the national scholastic honoraries Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Eta Sigma and the University's chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Student Affiliates, serving as the group's vice president and secretary. He was also president of the IWU Quiz Bowl team for two years and was president of the Society of Physics Students.

Binder was a Presidental Scholar, earned the 2001 CRC Press Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award and the 2002 ACS Polymer Education Committee Award for Outstanding Organic Chemistry Student.