HOW FAR CAN RUNNING TAKE YOU AFTER A DECADE OF ADDICTION!

WHEN MITCH AMMONS FINALLY GOT CLEAN, HE COULD BARELY JOG A HALF MILE. NOW HE'S LINING UP WITH SOME OF THE COUNTRY'S TOP DISTANCE RUNNERS AT THE 2024 OLYMPIC MARATHON TRIALS.

- PETER FLAX

A LONG TIME AGO-BEFORE HE'D FREEBASED OPIOIDS or robbed his best friend or checked himself into rehab for the sixth time Ammons had dreams of a future involving running.

Ammons can only shrug when asked to pinpoint the lowest point in a life filled with them. He spent a decade careening along the rock bottom, mired in what he now calls "the worst possible self-hate."

Mitch Ammons knows his story could have ended like the stories of so many buddies from his darkest years with an obituary. Instead, the longtime addict changed course in a manner that is, without hyperbole, beyond belief.

It's tough to fully grasp the scale of this turnaround until you see Ammons run-to see him metronomically cruise 4:50 miles for more than an hour or to watch him push himself to the brink of consciousness in an interval session at sunrise. Then you can absorb the way he embraces suffering-relishing the revelation of what his body can do while immersing himself in pain that must feel like a cosmic body rub compared to waking up every morning in opiate withdrawal.

People who love to run know that the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other can yield life-changing consequences. It doesn't matter if you're running toward something or from something the activity can bring you redemption and community and purpose and confidence and inner peace. It can strengthen your quads and your mental resolve.

Mitch Ammons knows these things with more clarity than most of us will ever experience. Seven years ago, he was a newbie jogger who'd not run hard since the 11th grade. He couldn't trot a half mile without collapsing. And before that, he spent a decade drowning in a sea of toxicity-smoking, injecting, drinking, popping, and otherwise ingest>ing every controlled substance you can think of and quite likely a couple more than that.