Sometimes all you have to do is ask (Healing Place Training Team)

For a number of years the Healing Place, a residential program for men in recovery from addiction, has had a training team for the Monument Avenue 10k. This year they are trying a team for the 8k race that is attached to the Richmond Marathon. They started on Saturday, but only six of the twelve residents who had signed up showed up. Yesterday I went to their all-hands-on-deck community meeting to try to recruit a few new men and remind the others about accountability. I told them to let me know if there was anything holding them back and we would find a solution. Afterwards two men said they were interested but didn’t have shoes. “Just show up” I said, knowing I had two days to figure something out and that F3 would be the first place to turn.

This morning I made a request for shoes at 45 Minutes of Mary hoping to score some used but still usable donations. Who else but Hardywood offers a full carton of returned shoes that have been hardly been used. All those men had to do was ask, and all I had to do was broadcast that request. T-claps for Hardywood.

If you are interested in running with the guys, the runs are on Saturdays through November 3rd at 7:30 AM. The Healing Place is on Dinwidde Ave south of downtown in the Blackwell/Manchester area. With the team so small and other running volunteers from the community, we don’t need more than three or four F3ers.

There were also some men who wanted to know if it was possible to put together an evening run. Let me know if you are interested.

To summarize:

• I think we are good on shoes
• I’ll find out if there is a need for clothing (shorts, sweats, etc.)
• Reply in the comments if you are interested in running after work during the week, and which evenings/times you are available