Griffin Hay (Stephanie Matusiefshy | THE BEACON)
By PJ Marcello, Staff Writer marcello13@up.edu
With a dominating cross country program that only seems to be getting stronger, The Beacon shines a spotlight on one of University of Portland's freshman distance runners. Freshman Griffin Hay gives us insight into his life and what makes him tick.
What is your favorite part about living in Portland?
Definitely the freedom I have right now because I'm so far away from my parents. I get to do what I want a little bit more and there's so much to do around Portland compared to Fort Collins, Colo. where I'm from. It's so much more urban and there's constantly concerts going on, great restaurants and things like that. I love it.
Do you have any nicknames?
I don't really have a nickname yet on the cross country team here, but my old team used to call me "Princess" because they knew I'd get annoyed by it and I tend to be a stickler for details at times.
Avengers or Dark Knight?
Oh! Dark Knight by far! It was so much more interesting and so much more human I thought than The Avengers. The Avengers were trying to throw comedy in and it just wasn't as powerful as The Dark Knight Rises.
Do you have a favorite quote that you live by?
My high school coach always lived by this motto and it was, "It's at the boarder of suffering and pain that the champions are separated from the rest of the pack." That's what I've tried to live by. When it's hard and it hurts you have to pull through to get the great results.
Is there a routine or song that you do before a race for you to get prepared?
Before every race, I have to listen to "Baba O'Reilly" by The Who. For some reason it gets me so pumped to run and lay everything out on the line. I grew up listening to classic rock because of my dad so I guess that's part of the reason. It's been part of my life for so long, like running that I always like to listen to it.
So far, what has been tougher, school or running?
Definitely school, because running you can go through for two hours and do everything you need to do and just be done with it, but school is uncertain you have to make sure you're studying enough for the quizzes, you have to make sure you're going in depth enough with your papers, and you have to make sure you're spending enough time on your schoolwork in general so that's been the toughest part for me.
What's your favorite class at UP?
So far it has to be theology with Fr. Gordon because he makes the history and facts about all our religions so fun and he knows how to shape the story of these interwoven religions. It's cool to see a Catholic priest talk about the aspects of other world religions in such depth too.
What is the longest distance you've ever ran?
At one time it's been 17 miles but we do 16 miles on a weekly basis. Eventually I want to run an ultra marathon and those are 100 miles at one time which is my ultimate goal.
