RICHMOND, Va. — Participants in CARITAS’ The Healing Place program have trained as a team to run Saturday’s Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k with support from their coaches.
The Healing Place is a long-term, peer-driven, residential recovery program offered free of charge to men and women suffering from substance use disorders.
Over the last 10 weeks, the CARITAS 10K Training Team offers an opportunity for participants to support their sobriety through training and participation in the race.
Just like their recovery program, the group of coaches helps them to grow as they prepare for the race, one mile at a time.
“The goal is to take participants from The Healing Place, both men and women, and expose them to, for most, a new activity that they can participate in. A lot of them have never run in a race and have never thought about training for it,” said Sara Sitkiewicz, a team leader.
The team was started 15 years ago by a former coach who loved running and wanted to share this journey with others in the program.
“Running is one of those things that I think really parallels the recovery journey. It's a beautiful opportunity to have that tangible experience of what it feels like to break through those limits,” The Healing Place Director Anna Murphy said.
Danny Mullaney started training with the team in 2015.
“We help each other. The atmosphere, this is just great energy. The amount of coaches that come out. When I first came here, I didn't know anybody but the people in the building and I met just some amazing people in a recovery setting, and also just people that are interested in helping. That's what it's a really cool mix of each seeing each other just train and cheer each other on,” Mullaney said.
James Kozlowski Jr. joined the program after struggling with drug and alcohol addictions.
“It really opened my eyes up to new things, possibilities,” he said.
Jamice Flood is one of the program’s newest residents as she entered the center five months ago.
“I like to give a special thanks to the women's Healing Place because this was something that I only could have dreamt of doing, and they gave me the opportunity to actually put this into action,” Flood said.
On race day, the CARITAS team will be 45 people strong, and one alumni member flies from Missouri every year to be with the team and run the race.
“Anything is possible, right? When we test those limits, we surprise ourselves at how far we can really go,” Murphy said.
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