“Death Cab For Cutie” Singer Turns To Running

A bender weekend convinced him it was time to make a change.

Here’s another case of a celebrity using running to help turn their life around: This time it involves “Death Cab for Cutie’s” Ben Gibbard. In a profile on the singer and songwriter, it was revealed that Gibbard has wrestled with alcohol addiction for years.

After a particularly bad bender weekend in Big Sur, California, Gibbard decided to do something about his problem. “I remember being on the flight home, going, ‘You know what? I really have to do something about this. This has really gotten out of control,” he recalls.

So Gibbard turned to running.

He recently ran his first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon, completing it in under four hours. Gibbard had raised money for two causes: 826 LA, an organization that inspires students with their creative writing skills and for the Japanese Red Cross.

“Quitting had been such a positive change in my life,” he says. “Nothing was going to make me want to go back to that.”

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