Back on My Feet

I joined a running club. It's not your average running club. I'll run with them next week for the first time, but I attended my team's monthly meeting yesterday morning. I had to get up at 4am to get there on time-- after having gone to bed at midnight the night before-- but after the meeting, I decided it was worth cutting my night's sleep short by three hours.

You see, most of the people on my running team have seen and experienced things you and I don't even dream about. Or if we do, we encounter them only in our nightmares. About half of my teammates are recovering alcoholics or drug addicts and men who have experienced homelessness. They live at a Mission now; they are fighting to get their lives back on track. And my running club exists to run alongside them during that fight.

My friend Melissa first introduced me to Back on My Feet when I ran the Broad Street Run with her last month. BoMF had just come to New York City, she told me, so I looked them up when I got back home. I felt some apprehension-- I mean, what am I supposed to say to a man who has lived on the streets and tried things I haven't even heard of? What if I don't know what to talk to them about? What if I say something that makes one of them mad or hurts their feelings?

So I went to the monthly meeting with pretty low expectations. And then I walked into the room and Kevin came up to me and greeted me with a warm "Are you going to be running with us?? You're going to love it!" and Lafayette tried to give me a t-shirt because he was excited I was going to be part of his team. When Dennis started finding ways to work his love of New Jersey into every conversation, I knew I was going to be okay.

Towards the end of the meeting, Kevin asked to speak. He said, "I've spent so many years mad at myself for my mistakes and I've felt so hopeless. And now I have you guys running alongside me and telling me I can do it. I've never had people telling me I could do anything. I don't think you guys understand how much you encourage me or how much you help me."

I don't think I understand either. But I'm excited to find out and to be a part of it!