The Jones Company recently had the opportunity to partner with Homes for Our Troops to build Ben Maenza a brand new home in Brentwood. We are so fortunate to know Ben and proud to hear if his latest accomplishment!
Benjamin Maenza finished in 12th place in the handcycle race with a time of 1:44.49.
ORIGINAL STORY:
What Marine-turned-marathoner Benjamin Maenza calls his arrogance, other people might call his valor. Or tenacity.
Or insanity.
Because Maenza finished his first marathon in 2011, only a year after an IED in Afghanistan efficiently shredded both his legs to above the knee. He used a handcycle to churn out those 26.2 miles without a day’s training, and he was hooked.
At 9:22 a.m. today in Boston, the Lipscomb University student will start his seventh marathon. But this one will be like none he’s finished before.
He will meet people who lost their limbs — not defending their nation overseas as he did, but because they simply wanted the exhilaration of running in the world’s most famous marathon. Three people died and more than 250 were injured when a bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. Some survivors are expected back, some of them in handcycles such as Maenza’s.
He isn’t afraid. If someone wants to repeat last year’s violence, he said, there’s nothing he can do about it.
He just wants to support those survivors. And yes, he can relate.
“It’s like me. I’ve got a lot I want to talk about, and I don’t know how to talk about it,” said Maenza, 25. “Only in certain situations does that conversation get started. Maybe they’ll be able to share some insight with me, I’ll share some with them, and we’ll all be able to grow.”…
Read article: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2014/04/21/wounded-nashville-vet-todays-boston-marathon/7950191/
