This is the thirtieth edition of The Duluth Runner Interview Series, where I get in touch with (mainly) local runners and athletes to share a bit of their story while inspiring others to pursue an active lifestyle.

Intro

Today’s guest never thought he was going to be a runner growing up, preferring other sports instead. That was until a couple of his friends encouraged him to join cross country in 7th grade.

He is originally from Esko – eventually attending UMD to run in college – and is currently working in the Accounting department at ALLETE here in Duluth…today’s guest is Ben Hanson!

Interview

Why is running important to you?

Running for me has been way more than just staying in shape and being healthy. Running has been very important to me on a social level also. I have met so many of my best friends because of running in high school and college. Without running, I wouldn’t be so blessed to have those relationships.

Running is also both my physical and mental health release, especially these days with COVID. Whenever I am stressed with work or have a lot of stress in my life, I always go for a run and right after I feel much more relaxed and focused.

What are the top two or three things that you do to prevent injury? Have you been susceptible to certain injuries in the past?

The two main things that I do to prevent injury are stretching and rolling out with either a foam roller. I have been susceptible to having hamstring strains in the past. My senior year of college I ran my best race ever during the indoor season on a Friday night at St. Thomas and the next day we had a meet at UWS. I strained my hamstring in the 4×400 meter relay.

After this I had to do a lot of rehab and stretching to get my hamstring back in good enough shape to run at indoor conference. Luckily I was able to still run at conference, but I was limited on which events I was able to compete in.

Then I took some time off between indoor and outdoor season to help my hamstring recover and then a couple weeks into outdoor season I strained it again, but not as bad as indoor season. This was very frustrating, and I went back into rehabbing it a bunch and stretching a lot more.

What keeps you motivated when you don’t feel like heading out the door for a workout?

I will be very honest, it can be tough to want to go for a run many days, but I find it to be way easier to get out the door when I am signed up for a race. If I have a race that I am signed up for then I want to give that race my best effort and I want to get in great shape for that specific race.

If I’m not signed up for a race then running with other friends helps motivate me to get out the door. It helps keep me accountable to run if my friends want to go for a run. I have a tough time saying no to them.

Who is in your running support group (training partners, people to bounce ideas off of, etc.)?

My support group would definitely be a couple of my best friends Jackson Lindquist and Adam Eskuri. We have been running together ever since my 7th grade year and whenever we hang out we always make sure that we pack running shoes and clothes. I also still have a lot of college friends, old teammates, old competitors, and coworkers that we all like to talk about running.

When/what is your next race?

My next race is planned to be September 14th which is the Boston Marathon – dependent on what the situation is with COVID.

Do you prefer roads or trails, and why?

I like both trails and roads, but currently I prefer running on the roads. This is because I want to run faster marathons and half marathons to get some new personal bests. I love running in Jay Cooke and at Hawks Ridge and other Duluth trails, but running on the roads to get faster is my goal for now.

What is your most memorable race or running achievement?

My most memorable running achievement was running the indoor 1000m track race at the University of St. Thomas my Senior year of college. I was having a great indoor season and I was running great workouts leading up to this race, and now it was time for me to prove that I could run a really fast race. The race was loaded with competition, I was going against some very fast U of M Gophers and St. Olaf guys.

I ended up getting 5th out of 9 in the race, which may not seem like much, but I ran a new personal best of 2:31.59. This time got me on the all time top 10 list at UMD for this event. During my career this was good for the 6th best time in UMD history for the event. Since then my time has fallen to the 8th fastest time in UMD history for this event.

Name one racing experience you would like to forget (please describe).

One racing experience I would like to forget would probably have to be running my first marathon. This was Grandma’s marathon 2017. Like I said this was my first marathon and it was coming off of my senior season of track and field where I was training for fast 800m races, not long marathon distance races.

So I had about one month to get long runs in. My goal for the marathon was to run it at 3 hours flat. This was because Adam and Jackson had already qualified for the Boston marathon and I was trying to get a qualifying time so I could join them on the trip and race Boston.

One thing that also threw a wrench into my training plan was that I got my wisdom teeth taken out 3 weeks before this marathon. This was the only time I could get it done and I had to take a full week off of running. My second run back from that was a 20 mile run with some friends which went surprisingly well, so I thought I would have a decent chance at 3 flat for Grandma’s.

So that was the backstory and now for the race.

I started the race out in a good spot and cruised through the first 18 miles at a great pace and I was right on track to get my time. Then things started to get a little harder, I felt my first cramp in my calf at mile 18 and I knew I was going to be in trouble, so I tried taking a GU and drink extra water and Powerade at the next mile.

I was able to keep running by switching up my form a little bit to try and prevent cramping. Then I got to mile 23 and I was really hurting, every step I took was just painful cramps in both of my calves. Then my time start to slip and it was all just down hill. I knew I wasn’t going to get my time which mentally defeated me. The last mile felt like it would never end and I ran a 10 minute mile which was way off pace. I finished with a 3:07:46.

What is something non-running related you would like to share with readers?

I would say that I enjoy gaming (Xbox) and crack cold ones with the boys whenever I have the time.

Closing

Many thanks to Ben for agreeing to stop by The Duluth Runner and share some of his knowledge/experiences with everyone. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Interview Series – stick around for more to come!