Benjamin Ashby

After almost twenty years on the platform, EFF is logging off of X. This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but it might be overdue. 🧵(1/5)

BREAKING: Democrats are now in the lead to win the U.S. Senate

Why it’s fiscally important to have a good football program.

Canada has updated the LGBTQ acronym to MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+. That stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual. Yes, really. I'm not joking. I wish I was.

Zohran Mamdani walked 6 miles home last night from the New York City Hall to round out his first 100 days in office.

For anyone wondering why I’m approaching this the way I am, a lot of it comes from what happened to me in 2023. I started running in 2020 when Covid shut the gyms down. I was a powerlifter. When gyms reopened, I kept running on the side, maybe 10-20 miles a week. In late 2021 I decided I wanted to run a marathon as a bucket-list thing. I signed up for Boston 2022 through a charity close to me, raised over $10,000, and finished in 3:30:28. I thought I’d be one and done. But that race changed something. I wanted to come back and qualify on my own. In 2023 I signed up for a marathon in May to go after a BQ. Training was going well. Four weeks out, I was on an easy morning run and had to call an Uber five minutes from my apartment because my foot hurt so bad I couldn’t walk. Grade 3 stress fracture in my left second toe. Out 13 weeks. DNS. I signed up for another marathon that October. Great training cycle. Four weeks out, pain in my hip. Went back to my doctor. Grade 1 stress fracture in my left femoral neck. Out 9 weeks. DNS. After the second one, my doctor had me get a DEXA scan. Osteoporosis. At 28 years old. So in one year I trained for two marathons and made it to the start line of zero. In May 2024 I finally made it back and ran my second marathon in 2:55:04. It was a BQ, but I knew it probably wouldn’t be enough for Boston 2025. So I signed up for another marathon that September and ran 2:51:54, which put me 1:15 under the eventual cutoff. Then I ran 2:47:27 at Boston in 2025. I’ve signed up for 7 marathons total and missed 2 start lines. This build means a lot to me. I’ve put months of work into it and I’m in the best shape of my life. But I’ve also had two races taken from me late in training because I didn’t get answers soon enough. With my bone density, I don’t get to just hope for the best when something feels off. That’s why I’m getting the MRI today.

This is so insane “Crumbl Cookies is now selling a cookie with the amount of sugar you would get, not in 1, not in 5, BUT 11 of these Krispy Kreme donuts” This one cookie has 69 ingredients including one that crosses the blood brain barrier How is this legal??

Shin update. Something in my gut has been telling me this isn’t just a flare up. Maybe it is. But I’ve had two stress fractures before and my bone density isn’t on my side, so I’m not in a position to guess. Messaged my doctor yesterday to try to get an MRI before Boston. Less than 2 weeks out. Waiting to hear back. The timing is brutal. I’m the fittest I’ve ever been. I’m ready to go after sub 2:35. This entire build has been full of ups and downs and I’ve fought through all of them. The idea of this race slipping away 2 weeks out is hard to sit with. But I’ve been through this before. I know what happens when you push through something you shouldn’t have. If it’s nothing, I race. Maybe not the race I originally planned. The last 3 weeks haven’t gone the way I drew them up and I’ll need to be honest with myself about what that means for my goals. If it’s something, there will be other Bostons. I’m just erring on the side of caution because my history has taught me to. Whatever comes back, at least I’ll know.