Ben Rosario Co-Owner

For the first sixteen months we were open I had kind of a lame bio up here about how I got started running and where I went to school and all that stuff. Apparently though, Matt tells me that it was not fun enough and I needed to make it more personable. Matt's really the one in charge if you didn't know although I'm the good-looking one as you can see by the picture on the left. Okay, here goes: I was born and raised in South St. Louis City, the best place ever. At one time I was sure I would play baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals but that only lasted until the oppposing pitchers hit puberty and I just couldn't get around on those 65 mph fastballs. In high school I realized I was better at running anyway and pretty much became obsessed with it for the next 12 years to the dismay of my parents, teachers and girlfriends. Yada...yada...yada... it all worked out for me and here I am. If you want to read my running bio with all sorts of cool stats you can click here. If you want to know even more I don't have a myspace page and I'm not on facebook or anything cool like that so you'll just have to come in the store. That's all folks. Peace out yo. Word to your mother. Holla back. - BEN

FUN STUFF

Favorite Movie:
Good Will Hunting. Wicked good movie. If I am dating a girl and she does not like this movie we are done for. By the way- I am a movie nut and actually have a list of my top 100 (thanks to my friend Eric Hartmark for the idea) and so this is no fluff answer. I really dig this movie.

Favorite Food:
I would have to say Life Cereal. My eating habits are not really all that good so I eat a lot of stuff just because it’s easy to “cook” like frozen burritos, frozen pizza, ramen noodles and stuff like that. Perhaps some day I will expand my palate to include fancy schmancy foods that I can’t pronounce or spell but for now a nice heaping bowl of Life Cereal really hits the spot. That sounded like I got paid to say that or something, but I didn’t. Maybe I should. Call me if you work for whatever company makes Life- we’ll talk.

Who’s your idol?
It depends. Sports-wise they kind of change all the time. I am constantly motivated by different runners that are out there busting fast times. I really like the marathoners that run huge miles because that’s what suits me best as well. With that as the criteria I would have to say that right now I really look up to my former Hansons teammate Brian Sell. He works harder than anybody and does things that I wouldn’t believe if I hadn’t seen him do them myself. Life-wise I really look up to my high school coach Jim Linhares. Without him I would not be where I am today.

What was your favorite running moment?
Well, right now it is finishing second at the Twin Cities Marathon. Specifically, it was coming down the long straightaway to the finish, running under the huge American flag, waving to the crowd, and basically just enjoying the last few hundred meters knowing I had second wrapped up. Those moments are few and far between so I really did my best to soak it up.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
Okay, well I guess I kind of took the serious approach on the last two so I will try to get back to the lighthearted side of things. I would say that my guilty pleasure is probably chick flicks. I like them. There, I said it. Here is a quick list: Never Been Kissed, Legally Blonde, The Notebook, & How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days.

Place you would most like to visit?
Wow. I’m glad there is another question so I can redeem myself a bit after that last debacle of an answer. This one is tough, but I will have to say London. I am a city boy all the way and London has always seemed to me to have all that I love about big cities. Those things being culture, diversity, great architecture, and great pubs! Maybe I’ll run the London Marathon one of these years and go see all of that stuff- after the race of course.