Sober steps: New Year's race helps recovering addicts find healing through movement

During one of the happiest times of the year, as people reunite with their loved ones and celebrate well into the cold, dark nights of winter — for some the holiday season is undercut with sadness.

“The holidays can be brutal for addicts,” said Andrea Alderete, who is in recovery for alcoholism.

This new year, a group of recovering addicts and supporters have started their own tradition.

On Thursday, Alderete celebrated another year sober, with running shoes on her feet and a race bib on her chest at a New Year’s Prediction run benefitting an addiction peer group called Soul Recovery Cafe.

The prediction run is in its third year and has swelled from 25 to 400 participants, its biggest turnout yet. This year, the free event, put on by a local doctor, members of Soul Recovery and a rag-tag group of volunteers, raised $2,000 for the program.

At its core the event is both a celebration and a moment to reflect, said Dr. Anthony Fleg, a local family medicine physician who started the yearly tradition in Albuquerque.

“New Year's Day is a big day to be sober and not be intoxicated, struggling to get up after partying too hard the night before,” Fleg said.

Participating in the race gives people a distraction and something to be proud of, Fleg said.

The race is run without many of the hallmarks of a 5k because watches, timers and cellphones aren’t allowed. Instead of focusing on the time or speed, Fleg hopes people will focus on moving with intention, whether that’s running or walking.

The goal of the run is to cross the finish line at exactly 11 a.m., without any timing devices, meaning that anyone of any age or ability would find themselves the unexpected victor.

This year it was Diane Klaus, who gasped and buried her head in her hands when her name was read aloud as the winner. She took her first place prize, a small acrylic trophy plaque with a functioning clock and told the crowd she was caught by surprise.

As Klaus passed the finish line at exactly 11 a.m. and four seconds, she thought she was more than 10 minutes behind.

“I said, ‘I’m gonna finish anyways,'” Klaus said. “So I did.”

‘Movement is medicine’

The idea for the prediction race came from Fleg’s background as a runner, as he experienced first hand what a “simple run” can do for the mind, body and soul, he said.

As a physician he saw it tenfold.

“When I meet a patient and the paper says they're 80 and they look 60, I don't have to ask, are they a mover? It's 100% correlation,” Fleg said. “I just go right to, ‘OK, so what's your form? Are you a biker? Are you a skier? Are you a dancer or are you runner?’”

For someone coming out of addiction and beginning recovery, exercise can be more healing than any prescription he could write, Fleg said.

On a physical level, exercise repairs a body broken by years of substance use, Fleg said, and on a psychological level it breaks down tensions and helps people reconnect with their peers and themselves.

Alderete cites herself as an example of Fleg’s belief that “movement is medicine.”

A year ago coming out of a relapse into alcoholism, Alderete could barely walk long distances, no less run.

She suffered from “severe” digestive problems and had lost custody of her daughter as a result of her addiction. Alderete stood on a knife's edge, hovering above what she called “the point of no return.”

When she joined Soul Recovery Cafe and their Addicts to Athletes program, it wasn’t initially by choice — she had been court-ordered.

Alderete had no idea that a year later she would become a coach and employee for that very program.

“I fell in love,” Alderete said.

Alderete sees the prediction run as a “starting point,” that anyone can participate in even if they decided to begin sobriety on New Year's Day.

As Alderete crossed the finish line Thursday, her partner and daughter cheered her on.

Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com or on Twitter @G_Barkhurst