The former BYU and Davis High runner finished eighth overall at Monday’s 2019 Boston Marathon, running a career-best 2:09:25. The mustachioed distance runner was the second-highest finishing American male, coming in just 15 seconds behind fellow U.S. runner Scott Fauble. Ward, who finished sixth overall at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, was coming off a sixth-place finish at the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon in November, where he ran a 2:12:24.
The 30-year-old distance runner also doubles as an adjunct statistics professor at BYU, his alma mater. Ward also lead for a portion of the race Monday in Boston.