for The Fix

I am not a morning person. I am also not an exercise person, which is why it was odd to find myself strolling across Crissy Field in San Francisco one Saturday morning in April, heading towards a huge banner that read, “Road to Recovery 5k.” Hosted by Open Recovery, an organization in San Francisco dedicated to ending the stigma of addiction through education, advocacy, and “empowering personal experiences in the community,” a non-sober friend had sent me a link to the event’s website. I hadn’t ever heard of a non-anonymous/non–A.A. affiliated recovery event (which isn’t to say they don’t happen, just that I haven’t heard of them). So I decided to check it out.* Honestly, I didn’t have the highest expectations. It seemed like a cool event but would people really get up at 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday to celebrate their recovery? (continued)