Sole Train walks with a purpose

Jeana always ends up in front.

No matter that they all start out together. No matter the path they set out.

Jeana Haley, 46, is always out in front, walking fast, hitting the button at the crosswalks, and staying ahead of the addiction she has fought for decades.

"When I started, I could barely walk," she said the other day. "Today, I may jog a little."

If you have ever found yourself in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday around lunchtime, you've probably spotted the black-shirted members of the Sole Train.

The walking/running group is made up of members of the Recovery Café, which was established in 2004 for those who struggle with addiction, mental-health issues and homelessness.

Since it started in February, the Sole Train quickly became part of the café's "School of Recovery," which includes life-skills classes and peer support.

Friday was the group's last session until September, so it seemed a perfect time to tag along and see whether the Sole Train had delivered its members to a better place.

A man named Monte, 32, has been walking with the group for two months, and has come to depend on it. He asked that his last name not be used.

"Instead of putting poison in my body," he said, "I'm doing something good."

On this day, he brought along Daniel Patterson, 39, whom he met when they were both living on the street. They're now tent mates at Tent City 3 in Shoreline, and take the bus to be part of the walking group.

Patterson, 39, moved to Seattle two weeks ago after recovering from a back injury. He is hoping to find work here as a fisherman.

"I just thought the walking group would be good," he said, adding that he doesn't have an addiction problem, but is just trying to get his life together.

"I drink once in a while. I am a fisherman, after all," he said.

"It's just nice not to walk alone for once," Patterson said.

The group was started in February by Dr. Vicki Allen, a Seattle internist who read about a Philadelphia running club made up of the homeless and those in recovery.

She contacted the Recovery Café's volunteer coordinator, Liz Coz, 24, who loved the idea.

In December, the pair met with Brooks Sports in Bothell, which donated 300 pairs of running shoes, and custom-printed shirts for the February kickoff.

The goods sat untouched in the café's basement for a while.

"At first, nobody came," Allen said. "Then one person, and then nobody again."

One of the first to show up and stay with it was John Nile, 40, who has been sober for 11 months. ("I did just about everything," he said, when I asked about his demons).

"I have to keep doing something because boredom takes you places where you don't want to go," he said. "If I get too much time on my hands, it's pretty dangerous."

He and Allen have walked through the rain, snow and hail, once donning garbage bags as raincoats.

Allen dubbed Nile "Eagle Eye" for his ability to spot the smallest detail: A piece of rubber from a car, glass set into the sidewalk.

"Once, I found a $5 bill," he told me. "I was pretty psyched, because I needed cigarettes."

It's not your average running or walking group, dead-set on a time or goal.

As we walked, Patterson stopped to pick blackberries. A man named Xavier lit up a cigarette. ("You can break people of only so many bad habits," said Coz with a shrug. She's there for every three-mile walk.)

The group's members share a constant struggle that only they understand.

Allen told me of one member who worked out at a gym with friends, and was invited out for drinks after. She joined the Sole Train soon after.

For others, she said, "It's the only reason they left their house that day."

Coz hopes to find new volunteers to join the group when it starts up again in September; the walks are three days a week, from 11:30 to 12:30. Maybe people from all the businesses relocating to South Lake Union?

The volunteers help coordinate the walks and keep the others company.

"You walk, you work hard and you get to eat together," she said. "We really feel like a team."

Especially since each member is outfitted with a new pair of shoes on the first day and — after four walks — a Sole Train T-shirt.

Brooks' corporate communications manager Tamara Hills said the company always tries to support programs in its own backyard.

"But there is something unique about this program," she said. "The way they instill hope ... They've been a great inspiration to us. We're in the business of selling a product, but it means so much more to know the impact it is making."

It doesn't matter to Coz if people join for the free running shoes or the shirt.

"What I know is that they stay because they see progress," she said. "They feel better on the inside."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

See you in September.