{"id":153,"date":"2017-07-07T08:01:35","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T08:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/?p=153"},"modified":"2017-07-07T08:01:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T08:01:35","slug":"a-6k-recovery-race-because-a-5k-isnt-enough-for-us-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/2017\/07\/07\/a-6k-recovery-race-because-a-5k-isnt-enough-for-us-addicts\/","title":{"rendered":"A 6K recovery race \u2014 because a 5K isn\u2019t enough for us addicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Only about three million people of 23 million people with addictions and mental illnesses get help. And many experts believe stigma around mental health diseases is what stops more folks from getting help.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s this movement afoot to get people in recovery to spread the message that A. addiction is a disease and B. we can recover or at least live symptom-free from that disease.<\/p>\n

Notice I said there\u2019s a movement \u201cafoot.\u201d And I\u2019m writing about a 6K race called \u201cHeroes in Recovery.\u201d Because I\u2019m so punny!<\/p>\n

This Saturday (Sept. 13) in Leiper\u2019s Fork, several hundred racers \u2013 many in recovery themselves \u2013 will do the fourth annual \u201cHeroes in Recovery\u201d race.<\/p>\n

Why a 6K instead of a 5K?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat extra kilometer is symbolic of going the extra distance to maintain sobriety,\u201d says Heidi Huerta with the Foundations Recovery Network, the creator and main sponsor of the race.<\/p>\n

There are seven such Heroes in Recovery races across the country, in places like Michigan, North Carolina and Boston.<\/p>\n

But hey, we in Middle Tennessee had the first one!<\/p>\n

\"6k\"<\/a>The other cool thing about our race is that it benefits The Next Door program, which helps women with addictions who have recently been in jail or prison.<\/p>\n

Most of those women have never run a race before, or really run or jogged at all. But volunteer coaches help train them.<\/p>\n

And on race day, there are always a dozen or so women from The Next Door who do their first race ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really emotional for a lot of them. You\u2019ll see everything from tears to tears,\u201d said Jeff Skillen, 45, a Franklin business consultant and avid runner who has raced in every Heroes in Recovery event since it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about setting a goal and achieving it. A lot of us take for granted what it means to set a goal and achieve it. For a lot of them, they\u2019re not sure they can,\u201d Jeff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it culminates and ends in accomplishment, it\u2019s a really big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have goose bumps? I do.<\/p>\n

I myself will be participating, and I don\u2019t run or jog anywhere \u2013 unless the Shoney\u2019s breakfast buffet\u2019s about to close.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m a little nervous.<\/p>\n

But, Heidi tells me, \u201cwe do have access to medical attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also provide healthy food, music and fellowship after the race.<\/p>\n

Jeff says he\u2019s not an addict but the disease has shown up in extended family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time we quit whispering about it and start drawing attention to it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, there\u2019s so much attention brought to all sorts of causes where people are supposed to be strong with cancer treatment, AIDS awareness, LGBT \u2014 it\u2019s amazing that\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0issue doesn\u2019t get the attention it deserves.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the link:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.heroesinrecovery.com\/heroes6k\/leipers-fork-tn\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Come join us!<\/p>\n

My friends Carrie and Chuck and John and Heather and Brandie and Ed and Ashlynn and a bunch of other folks are gonna be there. And a lot of us will be walking, and probably laughing a lot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only about three million people of 23 million people with addictions and mental illnesses get help. And many experts believe stigma around mental health diseases is what stops more folks from getting help. So there\u2019s this movement afoot to get people in recovery to spread the message that A. addiction is a disease and B. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}