RACE FOR LIFE
WHEN MITCH AMMONS FINALLY GOT CLEAN HE COULD BARELY JOG HALF A MILE. NOW HE'S LINING UP WITH THE BEST DISTANCE RUNNERS IN THE WORLD
A LONG TIME AGO, BEFORE HE’D FREEBASED opioids, robbed his best friend or checked himself into rehab for the sixth time, Mitch Ammons had dreams of a future involving running.
Ammons shrugs when asked to pinpoint the lowest point in a life that’s filled with them. He spent a decade at rock bottom, mired in what he now calls ‘the worst possible self-hate’. Ammons knows that his story could have ended like the stories of so many friends from his darkest years – with an obituary. Instead, the long-time addict changed the course of his life in a manner that’s almost beyond belief.
It’s hard to fully grasp the scale of this turnaround until you see Ammons run – see him metronomically cruise 4:50 miles or push himself to the brink of consciousness in a sunrise interval session. 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 with waking up in opiate withdrawal.
Runners 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 towards something or from something; it can bring you redemption, community, purpose, confidence, peace. It can streng then your mental resolve along with your quads.
Mitch Ammons knows these things better than most. Seven years ago, he was a newbie jogger who’d not run hard since school. He couldn’t trot half a mile without collapsing. Before that, he’d spent a decade drowning in a sea of toxicity – drinking, smoking, injecting, popping and otherwise ingesting every harmful substance that you can think of – and probably a few more. Now, instead of being dead or simply trudging through the heroic everyday task of recovery, Ammons, at 34, is pushing the limits of what should be possible, and living an almost incomprehensible dream. He’ll tell you that he isn’t a miracle or a fairytale hero. But getting to know Ammons will show you that where a person’s been and where they’re going can be two radically different places.
Anyone can become an addict. Growing up in an aff luent family, being a promising young athlete, having a vibrant social life – Ammons learned the hard way that none of these things can protect a child from an avalanche of bad decisions.
Before things went south, running meant something to Ammons. His parents were runners. His doctor father liked to pore over high-school track-and-field recaps in the newspaper and watch elites race in the Olympics. Riding his bike next to his mum as she jogged around their Dallas suburb, and seeing her finish races such as the Boston Marathon, made an
