Hey Jude…
I’ve worked in over 200 meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities and been in over 1000 in-commerce food facilities such as restaurants and warehouses. I’ve stood on slaughter lines in 100 degree temperatures where 2000 steer were slaughtered and processed. I’ve been in cold storage for hours at temperatures below zero. I often joke I should re-write the famous novel “The Jungle” with the experience I have in the food industry. For those reading this that believe all federal employees are lazy tax money leaches I’d respond with the ole cliché about good and bad apples. I would also tell you over the 12 years I spent as an Inspector and Investigator, I put just as much effort into my career as I did my running accomplishments.
About eight years ago I was detailed for work in a small town, middle of nowhere Vermont. Around the third day at the facility a worker mentioned that he saw I was running in the Home Depot parking lot nearby. When I was detailed, I often would spend a lot of early morning in the Lowe’s or Home Depot parking lots being they were usually next door to the hotel I would stay at. I asked the individual if he had lived nearby and he replied with a no and then bit his tongue. Just like I did my research on them, the facility had been stalking my social media.
Thus, I deleted all my social media… except Strava of course. I changed my name on Strava from Joe Stanek to Joe Jude and my trail running name was born. Till this day the majority of my friends and acquaintances think my last name is Jude. I still find myself ignoring people when they call me Jude. I often think of Joe Jude as an alternate competitive persona that comes out when I’m alone in the woods chasing time and throwing down big efforts.
Prior to leaving for my AT Thru hike a group of friends had gotten together to throw me a going away party. They discussed trail name possibilities. “Hey Jude” was thrown around and I took a liking to it. On my second day of my Thru-hike, I introduced myself to someone as Joe Jude and they started singing the Beatles song Hey Jude. At that point “Hey Jude” was locked in as my trail name.
I learned a lot about my name throughout my journey. Jude is the patron saint of lost causes. The name Jude reminds a lot of people of the amazing work done at the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Hey Jude by the Beatles is definitely a very popular song. Though I am not a Beatles fan the song itself has become special to me. The joy it brought me when meeting new people as they sung Hey Jude out loud on the trail was motivation that could not be matched.
From what I understand the meaning of the song Hey Jude, is to encourage a positive outlook on life and overcoming difficulties. After coming out the other side of walking through Hurricane Helene for 7 days I came across a group of day hikers. We carried on conversation and I explained my recent battle in the storm. As I left, they all began to sing Hey Jude and the last woman in the group looked me in the eyes and said way to take a sad storm and make it better.
As I said many times before the community support on all my fitness journeys through life has been a key part of my success. My favorite two lines in the song Hey Jude are, “Hey Jude, don't let me down. You have found her, now go and get her”. I often associate her with the trail. In this instance the her was the AT and my efforts to finish during thru the storm would not let the community down.
Now that I am off trail, I have started a new journey, coaching. I’ve stepped away from my career as a Federal Investigator and began to bet on myself. Full-time coaching has been a dream of mine for a long time. The AT has blessed me with the courage to reset. Joe “Hey Jude” Stanek now represents the next chapter in my life and fresh opportunities.
- Joe “Hey Jude” Stanek