New running club in Dallas helps men fight through addiction on road to recovery
A group of men in South Dallas is finding a connection between doing the hard thing and getting physically and mentally fit — while fighting addiction.
Rand Carlson is like most of us. Running isn't his favorite.
"The running doesn't feel good, the best part is when you're done running," said Carlson.
But a few years ago, a mentor challenged him to run a half marathon.
"Half marathon? I can't even run like half a mile," said Carlson, "All of a sudden I was running one mile, two miles, three miles and then I completed the half marathon."
It was all part of the climb out of his darkest hole.
"I started using when I was in high school. Marijuana, alcohol and then over the years it kind of progressed into harder drugs," said Carlson, "I spent so long doing drugs that it was hard to think about well how do I fill my week now?"
While finding his sobriety at The Men of Nehemiah, a treatment center in south Dallas, he started a running club. Slowly more and more men in the program joined him. Men like Brandon Kuhnlein.
"Addicts, we usually run away from our problems. And this is kind of something opposite to what we do, we're running towards the finish line," said Kuhnlein.
His story isn't much different than Carlson's. Drinking at a young age led to intense drug use and addiction.
"Then I kind of lost my family and they moved on and left me alone in my addiction which caused me to spiral," Kuhnlein said.
But five months ago, Kuhnlein found this group, worked the program and got sober. Now, he's running through the finish line having his daughters back in his life.
"It might look like I'm sad, and there is sadness, but there's a lot of happiness because I know what I'm doing is the right thing and I have so much to look forward to, especially with my daughters," said Kuhnlein.
