BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE –
Dec. 5, 2025 – Recently I ran the New York City Marathon. It was my seventh marathon in the four years that I have been in recovery from alcoholism.
Running is not a byproduct of my recovery; it is one of the main reasons I’ve stayed sober. Many people need clinical rehabilitation to stop drinking, but it wasn’t enough for me. Once my treatment ended, I was thrown back into the same lonely environment that caused me to drink in the first place.
I needed something more, a community that provided support, accountability and goals.
In 2018 I was devoid of all three. That year my marriage ended abruptly, and I lost my job shortly after. Those back-to-back blows sent me into a spiral of addiction.
I would wake up, intending to apply for jobs, and make a drink that I told myself would help me get started. But it was never only one drink, and often I would end up passed out by the afternoon.
I entered treatment in 2019, thinking I could learn to drink like a normal person — only socially, not when I was sad or angry.
I didn’t yet understand that that’s not how addiction works. And while I may have learned new tools in treatment, I had no structure and no supportive community where I could practice them.
