| Location: Pittsfield,MA, Member Since: Jul 02, 2008 Gender: Male Goal Type: Boston Qualifier Running Accomplishments:
- 2006 Mohawk Hudson River Marathon (NY)
- 2007 Vermont City Marathon (VT)
- 2011 BPAC 6 Hour Run (NY)
- 2011 Mind the Ducks 12 Hour (NY)
- 2012 Maple Leaf Indoor Marathon #1 (IN)
- 2012 Maple Leaf Indoor Marathon #2 (IN)
- 2012 BPAC 6 Hour Run (NY)
- 2012 Mind the Ducks 12 Hour (NY)
- 2012 Memorial Day Marathon (MA)
- 2012 Around the Lake 12 Hour (MA)
- 2012 Hancock Shaker Village 50 (MA)
- 2012 Bay State Marathon (MA)
- 2012 First Descents Marathon (DE)
- 2013 Maple Leaf Indoor Marathon #1 (IN)
- 2013 Maple Leaf Indoor Marathon #2 (IN)
- 2013 Circular Logic Marathon (IN)
- 2013 Lake Waramaug 50M (CT)
- 2013 BPAC 6 Hour Run (NY)
- 2013 Ragnar Cape Cod Ultra Team (MA)
- 2013 Memorial Day Marathon (MA)
- 2013 Relay For Life No. Berkshire (MA)
- 2013 Ragnar Adirondack Ultra Team (MA)
- 2013 BayState Marathon (MA)
- 2013 One Day At the Fair Marathon (NJ)
- 2013 West Palm Beaches Marathon (FL)
- 2014 Arena Attack XL Center Marathon (CT)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #1 (IN)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #2 (IN)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #3 (IN)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #4 (IN)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #5 (IN)
- 2014 Maple City 6-Pack Marathon #6 (IN)
- 2014 Circular Logic Marathon (IN)
Personal Bests:
- 400 - 1:01 (2004)
- 800 - 2:16 (2004)
- Mile - 5:12 (2004)
- 2Mile - 11:27 (2004)
- 5k - 19:44 (2005)
- 10k 40:46 (11/22/07)
- 15k - 1:07:40 (11/11/07)
- 13.11 Half - 1:38:31 (12/9/07)
- Marathon 3:59:18 (1/25/14)
- 50 miles 11:44 (5/14/11)
Eagle Scout with Bronze and Gold Palms (2002)
Biked from Ticonderoga, New York to Old Orchard Beach, Maine in August of 2005 (Total of about 290 miles Short-Term Running Goals: 200 miles @ 72 Hour Race in May
Under 200 #
Sub 4:00 Marathon
Long-Term Running Goals: QUALIFY AND RUN IN THE BOSTON MARATHON. Personal: I am 27. Have done 33 marathons and ultras. Really trying to get in shape to get back to running the miles I want to. I love to read and worked for four years in a bookstore. I like to keep track of the books I read. Currently I work as a 6th & 7th grade history teacher at the only charter school in Berkshire County, as well as serve as the coach for the cross country team! Been experimenting as a pescatarian (eating only fish) since August 10, 2011.
Just earned my Master's Degree in Adolescent Education for Social Studies. I have the most wonderful WIFE in the entire world.. EMMA! October 16, 2010
Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must. Just never give up! - Dean Karnazes -
We are all teachers and we are all students in this sport. - Dean Karnazes -
The simple act of putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward at an accelerated rate can be one of life's greatest - and simplest - pleasures. ~Dean Karnazes
"Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny." - MK Gandhi
"The marathon mercilessly rips off the outer layers of our defenses and leaves the raw human, vulnerable and naked. It is here you get an honest glimpse into the soul of an individual. Every insecurity and character flaw is open and on display for all the world to see. No communication is ever more real, no expression ever more honest. There is nothing left to hide behind. The marathon is the great equalizer. Ever movement, every word spoken and unspoken, is radiant truth. The veil has been obliterated. These are the profound moments of human interaction that I live for." - Dean Karnazes
Benn Griffin
Create Your Badge{C}
2014 Books I've Read:
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| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 40.31 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 39.81 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 28.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 28.00 | Weight: 194.00 | |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 5.55 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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11:00 AM - Had a great time going to Emma's aunt and uncle's house yesterday out in Harvard, Mass. Got to meet more of the family and had a really fun time. Got home late and went to bed. Hadn't run in a while so I wanted to go jogging. It was snowing this morning, those big, fluffy wet snowflakes that just seem to float down to the ground. By the time I had breakfast, there were 1-2" of snow on the ground. Emma said she would do the Power-90 workout while I jogged on the treadmill. So I went on the mill and ran. Looked through the latest issue of Trail Running Magazine for the first 30:00. Felt pretty good during the run, except I was just tired because I haven't run since two days before Christmas. Winter running is hard! Going to have to try harder to get in 4-5 jogs a week! Finished with the last .3 miles at 8:00/ mi pace.
Total Time: 53:11 Total Distance: 5.55 miles Average Pace: 9:35 |
| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 5.55 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 | Weight: 194.00 |
| | Comments(3) |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 4.61 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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2:40 PM - Starting last night through tomorrow morning there is a Windchill Advisory. Windchills may be in excess of negative 15 or 20 below zero. I was at Emmy's the last couple days for Christmas. Had a really swell time, but I work tonight at 5 so I had to come home before going into town. Got home and no one but my brother Jonn was home. My youngest brother Harry went and broke his arm again snowboarding this time. They all went over to the Remscheid's who are are in Mississippi checking in on their newly born grandson. My mom and sister and Harry went over to check in on the grandparents who are housesitting for a few weeks.
I hopped on the treadmill and was watching the movie Saw V. Watched the first hour of it. It's alright. As of late I've been reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams. I'm about 110 pages in right now. Really phenomenal writing. I can see why the HBO miniseries was based off of his work.
Warmed up with 1.5 miles @ 6.2mph, then starting doing pick ups. Did about 5 or 6 x 1:00 pick ups to 8-8.5mph, with :30 second breaks. Jogged another mile or so and then 3 x :30 second pick ups at 9mph. Warmed down. Felt pretty good. Left achilles area still tender. What is average recovery time for achilles I wonder? Last one took a long time to heal as well!
Total Time: 41:00 Total Distance: 4.61 miles Average Pace: 8:54 |
| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 4.61 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 | Weight: 0.00 |
| | Add Comment |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 10.23 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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9:15 AM - Woke up this morning early to the dogs barking their heads off. My mom and sister had to take both of their cars in to fix a broken windshield and something else, I forget. Then we got a call and my sister's car broke down on the way there. My brother Jonn wanted to take my car to take his girlfriend, Ellen to Fonda to watch a girls's basketball game. So I am home with my youngest brother, Harry who is himself stuck here because of his broken arm. Oii never a dull moment in the house, eh?
My left achilles is still hurting me. I am not sure why, but it is always on the outside, left part of it. It is bearable when I run but then I have to ice afterwards because there is that grinding feeling afterwards. What the heck is wrong with me. It is frustrating sometimes!
Did 41:08 on the treadmill. Felt fine, not too taxed aside from this bum achilles. Did 300 crunches afterwards. Going to do 3 x 15 sets of eccentric lifts on the stairs after my shower.
Total Time: 41:08 Total Distance: 4.28 miles Average Pace: 9:36
2:00 PM - Hopped on the treadmill for an afternoon run. Was watching part of "Saw VI" movie. Pretty gruesome, but non stop action so it helps to pass time while you have to get your run in. Kind of tired and I did a lot of stretching before and afterwards. I don't know but my achilles feels a little better. We'll see what happens. Going to get a shower and then ice some more. Felt good though on the jog just now.
Total Time: 51:30 Total Distance: 5.45 miles Average Pace: 9:26
8:30 PM - After dinner did a quick .5 miles @ 10:00 pace on the 'mill. Had to get to double digits. First time since Thanksgiving! Ran in a pair of Sanuks that Harry gave me.. a pair of skateboarderish sandals. Just wanted to get to 10 miles haha. The crazy things runners do. First time in my life I've run 3 times in a single day.
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| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 9.73 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 | Weight: 0.00 |
| | Comments(2) |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 4.25 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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8:30 AM - Have to work this evening and early tomorrow a.m. for New Years so not sure if I'll get another chance for running this year. So here it is, my final run of 2009. It's been a pretty good year, and aside from the lingering achilles pain in my left leg as of late, I have been fairly injury free. Just wish it'd go away so I could put as many miles as my heart longs to log. Goals for next year include running a trail marathon, logging a couple trail 1/2 marathons, and hopefully finishing Curly's Trail Marathon in September. Maybe a marathon PR?! One can dream. Read from Geoff Williams's C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America, the first 50 pages. A good book. Really puts it into perspective how crazy people were in the 20's.
Total Time: 41:00 Total Distance: 4.25 miles Average Pace: 9:39 2009 Accomplishments: 50 MILE PR! 2:48:50!! (4/2/09)- 50 MILE PR! 2:46:00!! (5/25/09)
- Long Ride: 55.2 miles (4/2/09)
- Long Ride: 60.5 miles (4/9/09)
- Long Ride: 78.56 miles (4/16/09)
- CENTURY 100.5 miles in 6:31:00(5/2/09)
- Fastest sustained speed: 43 MPH(5/19/09)
- Fastest sustained speed: 45.7 MPH(5/21/09)
- Highest Mileage Week: 185.02 miles(5/30/09)
Short-Term Running Goals: Complete Camp Saratoga Summer 5k Series: DONE! - Week #1 (6/29): 25:25, 21st place!
- Week #2 (7/13): 23:00, 13th place!
- Week #3 (7/27) 23:12, 11th place!
- Week #4 (8/10) 24:01, 17th place!
- Week #5 (8/24) 24:09, 20th place!
- Mount Greylock Road Race (8mi): 39th place! 1:22:21
- Finish Curly's Trail 1/2 Marathon (Sept. 20th) 22nd Place, despite getting lost and doing extra 1.5 miles; 2:44:32
- Monroe Dunbar Brook Trail Run 10.5 miles (10/11) - 2:02:54 good for 53rd place overall and 2nd in age group.
- Saratoga National Bank 5k XC Classic (10/18) 20:36, 54th place overall and 9th in age group
- Hairy Gorilla Half Marathon (10/25)2:02:18 on a sore ankle in the mud! 94th place overall.
- Fall Back 5 Mile (11/1) DNS - ankle injury
- Stockade-athon 15k (11/8) 1:14:31, good for 429th place of 1268 total runners and 24th of 37 in age group.
- Troy Turkey Trot 10k (11/26)
2009 Books I've Read: - Peace: The Words and Inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi
- Ultramarathon Man, Dean Karnazes
- The Extra Mile, Pam Reed
- A Husband's Little Black Book, Robert Ackerman
- The Forgotten History of America, Cormac O'Brien
- Animal Academy, Pat Ramsey Beckman
- Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
- The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling, Edmund R. Burke & Ed Pavelka
- 26 Miles to Boston, Michael Connelly
- The Elements of Style, William Strunk & E.B. White
- Race to the Pole, Sir Ranulph Fiennes
- The Greatest Stories Never Told, Rick Beyer
- Excavation, James Rollins
- Lincoln at Home, David Herbert Donald
- The Devil's Cup: Coffee, the Driving Force in History, Stewart Lee Allen
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
- Born to Run, Scott McDougall
- My Life on the Run, Bart Yasso
- Once a Runner, John L. Parker, Jr.
- Stealing Lincoln's Body, Thomas Craughwell
- The Boy Who Saved Baseball, John H. Ritter
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
- T4, Ann Clare Lezotte
- Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust, Eve Bunting
- Faithful Elephants, Yukio Tsuchiya
- Shin's Tricycle, Tatsuharu Kodama
- The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
- Leading From Within, Sam M. Intrator
- Tuned In and Fired Up, Sam M. Intrator
- Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah
- Again to Carthage, John L. Parker, Jr.
- Pox Americana, Elizabeth Fenn
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
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| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 4.25 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 | Weight: 0.00 |
| | Comments(1) |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 5.17 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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8:00 AM - Work was crazy last night, as Saratoga Springs does a First Night celebration every year. For once the bookstore wisened up. Usually people use Borders for one of two reasons: 1. a meeting place/warming hut for the New Years festivities or 2. the bathroom. Borders is the only place in the city with public restrooms (unless you run into the McDonald's I suppose). This year they let us close early, at 6, but it wasn't until 6:40 that I got out of the store, as the store was utterly trashed. I came home and had dinner and then got ready for bed. Tossed and turned though and didn't doze off until about 11. Was up at 5am to the dog barking. Oi. Off to work today too.
Read more from the book on the Bunion Derby of 1928 today. It's getting really good. Am up to page 92 now. Also read another 60-ish pages in the McCullough biography on John Adams at work yesterday before clocking in . It is amazing when you read about the 1928 derby, just how crazy people were! And the guy that organized the race, C.C. Pyle was a shrewd son of a gun. He basically held a monopoly on the runners, making them pay for food, lodging, etc. from only him during the course of the event. I was laughing at one point as I ran because I imagine Pyle as this shrewd businessman kind of like the legendary Jock Semple of the Boston Athletic Association. And lo and behold a vagabond named Ukelele Jake with two mangy muts crashes the party for nearly a week, coming in amongst the leaders despite not paying the $125 entry fee. Well Just like Semple tried to pull K. Switzer from the marathon, he concocted a plan to pull Ukelele Jake from the race by calling the SPCA on the dogs! When he went out to search for them Jake landed in the slammer for vagrancy and that's all she wrote. Classic.
A recurring theme in the book is that everyone had their own stories, and all the favorites (the Finns, the Euros, the elites) seemed to suffer in the opening days of the event, many dropping out. But the sheer magnitude of running and racing across a continent the magnitude of these United States has failed to be acknowledged or recognized as of yet by the runners (at least as far as I've gotten in the book). Can't wait for the next episode.
Left achilles felt a bit better. Did 3 x 15 sets of eccentric exercises on the stairs before bed yesterday. Will do some after my shower and then again before bed tonight. Here's to 2010.
Total Time: 50:00 Total Distance: 5.17 miles Average Pace: 9:40 |
| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 5.17 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 6.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 6.00 | Weight: 0.00 |
| | Add Comment |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 10.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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11:00 AM - Went to bed late last night after driving Ellen home with Jonn. He can't drive after 9pm with the license he has now so I didn't mind. Better than him driving and getting pulled over or something. Got up this morning and was just about to go for a jog, had literally hit the start button on the treadmill and phone started ringing. It was Emmy. I got a late start. Usually by the time she calls I'm done with my run, but not the case today. I told her I'd call her as soon as I finished. Going to go do that now!
Ran on the 'mill and read more of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Footrace about the 1928 Bunion Derby. I implore every running enthusiast out there to pick this book up. It is absolutely amazing. And amazingly horrid. It's crazy to think that a scam artist like C.C. Pyle was able to concoct a scheme like this. He was a vagabond who owed everyone money and constantly skipped town rather than settle debts. He at one point sold 1/2 of his share in a movie buisness to pay off the other guy that bought the other 1/2 and then left them with the whole debt! He promised money to the runners at the end of each stage and so far, as I'm up to page 190 or so, he has yet to pay any of the runners a cent! Can't imagine an idea like this going through in today's world. I'm surprised so many runners pushed through the pain and sweat and tears just to finish the race. This book is definitely on my favorite list.
Working tonight at the bookstore until 1130ish. Tomorrow, Emmy and my mom and me are all going to Copake Country Club to get some of the wedding stuff sorted out. Should be fun.
So today was a first. I guess my treadmill shuts off after 100 minutes? Who would've thought. Ran the whole time at 1-2% grade with a little water at 60, 75, and 90 minutes in. Next time need to set up an aid station.
Total Time: 1:41:30 Total Distance: 10.5 miles Average Pace: 9:40 |
| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 10.50 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 | Weight: 0.00 |
| | Comments(2) |
| | Running Miles | Swimming Yards | Bike Miles | | 40.31 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
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| Brooks Addictions 8 - #2 Miles: 39.81 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 28.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 28.00 | Weight: 194.00 | |
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