Runner’s World magazine offered a major feature on Back on My Feet, including a host of our Philadelphia members.

The first time Mike Solomon smoked crack, he ran.

He was at a friend’s house, and somebody pulled out a rock. They’d smoked plenty of weed before, but here was this new thing, with this new pipe; Mike doesn’t remember if he had even heard of it before. His friend taught him how to smoke it, and gave him a hit, then told him to go down the street and grab a case of beer. He stepped out of the house, and he doesn’t know why, but he just started running. Full tilt. Sprinted in the darkness. Maybe it was two blocks, maybe 10. He got to the store and didn’t blink once. He couldn’t believe how it felt.

He bought the beer, left the store, and again, he ran. He arrived back at the house faster than anyone there had expected, out of breath and wild-eyed. His friends looked at him in the doorway. He couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t stop laughing. He looked down and saw a half empty case of beer in his hand. A trail of cans lay all down the street.

“I was like, ‘Whoa,’” he says. “‘Give me another one of those.’” … MORE

Read the rest here.