Conversations Unplugged
with Griff Long
Griff Long was told 15 years ago that running was no longer in his future. After starting as a downhill ski racer at 14, years of competition and endurance sports eventually led to four knee surgeries and, according to Griff, only about 30% of the cartilage remaining in one knee. He went on to reach his goal of competing at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, but he still wasn’t finished testing his limits. In this conversation with STEMREGEN Founder and Chief Science Officer Christian Drapeau, Griff shares how he returned to ultra-endurance racing and why recovery has become one of the most important parts of his approach.
Griff Long
Griff discovered STEMREGEN about two years ago and began following an intensive protocol as he continued training. Then came a test he could not ignore: a 50-mile race with 17,000 feet of climbing. Griff says that after finishing, he woke up the following day and was able to walk without the pain he had come to expect after long runs. For an athlete with his history of knee injuries and surgeries, that experience stood out enough to make STEMREGEN a consistent part of his routine.
Now Griff is preparing for an entirely different endurance challenge: a Last Man Standing race in which competitors run three miles every hour until only one person remains. The previous winner, he says, lasted 52 hours and covered 208 miles. Christian encourages Griff to think about circulating stem cells not only as part of recovery after the event, but as something to support throughout the race itself. His idea is to increase the availability of the body’s own repair system before and during prolonged physical stress, potentially giving muscles and other tissues greater regenerative support as the miles accumulate.
That concept immediately connects with the way Griff has approached athletics throughout his life. After becoming a triathlon coach and working across the fitness industry, he developed a habit of continually studying, earning certifications, and looking for ways to become “1% better every day.” What drew him to STEMREGEN, he says, was the science behind the approach. Now the next experiment is waiting at the starting line. After years of being told what his body could no longer do, Griff is still finding new ways to discover what it can.
