Frank Ruona

Counting 52 laps at 1000 mile club race

October 15, 2018 by Marcus Henderson

Twenty-eight 1000 Mile Running Club runners started the Ninth Annual San Quentin Half Marathon under blue skies on a beautiful August 10 day, while community volunteers kept track of every lap. Twenty-one men completed the full 52-1/2 laps around the prison yard.
Markelle “The Gazelle” Taylor, who holds most of the club’s records, predictably came in first with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes, 44 seconds. He runs every race with a cause in mind.
“I dedicate this race to all immigrants and children separated from their families,” Taylor said.
Without the club’s second-best runner, Eddie Herena, in the race, Chris Scull took second challenged only by Steve Reitz, who came in third. Their respective times were 1:33:06 and 1:38:30.
“Usually I’m fourth or fifth; it feels nice to get on the podium,” Reitz joked. “I thank the volunteers, like Tim Fitzpatrick. Counting laps isn’t the most interesting thing to do.”
Club coaches Frank Ruona, Diana Fitzpatrick and Kevin Rumon, along with community volunteers Tim Fitzpatrick and Jim Morris, counted the laps with help from club members who couldn’t run but still wanted to help out. Each person kept track of about four runners.

“Police departments in 13 of the 25 largest U.S. cities did not post their (operating and use-of-force) procedures online.” “The Opaque Blue Line” by C.J. Ciaramella in Reason magazine May 2017

“Counting laps is challenging,” Morris said. “I like doing this because it’s something good; it’s giving something back with the knowledge that with this much difference, I’d be the one in here hoping somebody helped me out.”
The 69-year-old worked as a biologist in the wetlands supervising lab testing before retiring.
“Counting laps is very tough; my hand is starting to cramp,” D. Fitzpatrick said. “I do this because of my commitment to the men.”

New club member Mark Jarosik, 52, expressed his appreciation for the 1000 Mile Running Club.
“It means a lot to be able to run with other guys trying to better themselves, and we really appreciated all the coaches coming out,” Jarosik said.
He came in fifth with a time of 1:40:40 right behind Steve Brooks, who took fourth.
Two of the club elders put on a great race. Larry Ford, 62, came in 10th with a time of 1:53:03.
“I’ve run more half-marathons than anybody in the club,” Ford noted.
Michael Keeyes, the oldest member of the running club at 71, came in 14th, with a time of 2:00:24, short of his 70-plus age group record of 1:47:01. As the only member of the club over 70, no one can challenge his record yet.
“I want to set the bar high, so when Larry turns 70, he has something to shoot for,” Keeyes said. “I want him to earn it.”
Daniel McCoy, 56, another new member, completed his first half-marathon.
McCoy has a pacemaker, but it doesn’t bother him in the least.
“Running helps me mentally and psychologically and it keeps me mellow in this environment,” McCoy said. “Running in my first half-marathon at San Quentin is inspirational. Talk about turning a bad into a good. I’m in prison, which is bad, but I’m accomplishing something good—better health and I appreciated the camaraderie.”
^{The other half-marathon finishers were: (6) David Barnes, (7) Bruce Wells, (8) Jonathan Chiu, (9) John Levin, (11) Troy Dunmore, (12) Tommy Wickerd, (13) Glen Mason, (16) Al Yaseng, (17) Lee Goins, (18) Kerry Rudd, (19) Darren Settlemyer, (20) Mona Vue and (21) Edward Mone.}

PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide.

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–By Rahsaan Thomas

Fasting doesn’t slow Muslim participants in race

July 24, 2018 by Rahsaan Thomas

Bruce Wells running at San Quentin

The 1000 Mile Club held a 10-mile race during the holy month of Ramadan. Several Muslims competed, including Bruce Wells, who managed to finish, although far behind Markelle Taylor, who took first place.

“All glory to Allah, I was able to finish,” Wells said. “I feel more mentally prepared because it was Ramadan.”

During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink water from sunup until sundown.

The race started at 9 a.m. May 25. Muslim runners Wells, 54, LaCedrick Johnson, 52, Jerry Gearin, 51, and Eric Moody, 48, couldn’t have a sip of water till about 8:26 p.m., yet performed well in the race.

Moody completed seven miles, Gearin 8.75 miles, while Wells and Johnson ran the whole 10.

“I feel wonderful,” Wells said after the race with a huge smile on his face. “I’m not exhausted.”

He beat his 2016 time of 1:32:53 by completing the 40 laps in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 44 seconds.

Johnson came in 14th with a time of 1:31:22.

The cool weather under overcast skies helped.

“Good conditions, nice and cool but too many alarms,” sponsor Frank Ruona said. “We had to deal with four alarms for a total of seven minutes of down time.”

The alarms required all incarcerated people on the yard to sit on the ground until disturbances elsewhere in the prison were cleared.

Taylor took first with a time of 59:26 despite having to regain his momentum after each alarm.

“I wanted to break my record,” Taylor said. “Those alarms killed me. I had to run stiff every time I got up.”

He missed his 2016 record by two seconds but came in several minutes before the next runner.

He dedicated the win to people with physical and mental disabilities.

“Never give up in life,” Taylor said.

Chris Scull took second with a time of 1:07:45 without his training partner and nemesis Eddie Herena in the race. The 5-foot-2 Herena was assisting the teaching of a Prison University Project biology class.

In third place came Vincent Gomez with a time of 1:08:06.

Steve Brooks edged out Steve Reitz for fourth place with respective times of 1:13:36 and 1:13:47.

The older men in the club showed the benefits of running.

The 62-year-old Larry Ford broke the 60-and-over record with a time of 1:19:21 and an eighth-place spot overall.

Mike Keeyes, 72, broke the 70-and-over record with a time of 1:34:07 and a 15th overall place.

Alvin Timbol stopped short after six miles with a time of 55:56. However, the distance was an improvement.

“This is the longest I’ve run for the club,” Timbol said.

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The passion of running stretches beyond the prison walls

May 15, 2018 by Rahsaan Thomas

From the yard inside San Quentin State Prison, Chris Schuhmacher used to look up over the walls at Mt. Tam, thinking one day I’m going to get there. Now on parole, he’s arrived and he continues using the two things that got him through his bid—running and computer coding.

“Chris exemplifies the spirit, drive and determination of someone who wants to succeed and set an example for others,” Beverly Parenti, co-founder of the Code.7370 coding program at San Quentin, said.

Day of Peace guest Herman Yee, Chris Schumacher and Clarence Long soaking up some sun rays

Schuhmacher works as a software engineer for Fandom, a company that is like a Wikipedia for media, entertainment, music and video game content.

His journey to become a software engineer started in prison with exercise and an entrepreneurship program called The Last Mile.

While in The Last Mile program founded by Chris Redlitz and Parenti, Schuhmacher came up with an app concept that would help people use exercise to overcome their addiction to drugs and alcohol. He named it Fitness Monkey.

“Exercise produces the same hormones and endorphins in the brain that drugs and alcohol do,” Schuhmacher said. “So it was really logical for me to develop an app around providing people with exercise and workout programs as an alternative to drugs and alcohol.”

The app is designed to track how long a person stays sober down to the minutes and seconds. It will also act as a fitness tracker and a social media support system for a community of recovering addicts, said Schuhmacher.

The concept for Fitness Monkey came from Schuhmacher’s own life.

He struggled with addiction in society and ended up incarcerated over a drug-related crime for 17 years.

In prison, he cleaned up, took yoga and played tennis. To become a better tennis player, he started running with the 1000 Mile Club.

“It was through the 1000 Mile Club that I found I had a love for running and not just hitting a tennis ball around,” Schuhmacher said. “I ran my first marathon in 2011.”

He ran on Monday nights with the club sponsored by members of the Tamalpais Runners Club including the former president Frank Ruona, along with Kevin Rumon and Diana Fitzpatrick.

He could see Mt. Tam by looking over the walls on the yard while running with fellow club members.

Chris Schuhmacher passing another runner at the Mt. Tamalpais in the Dipsea Race

The 1000 Mile Club gave him a sense of camaraderie. He ran with John Levin and Tommy Wickerd on Saturdays.

“As close as we were in confined quarters and really getting to know people on a human level, I don’t think I’ll ever have that kind of solidarity amongst other people,” Schuhmacher said.

Schuhmacher remembered his Fitness Monkey concept when The Last Mile program evolved into the coding program Code.7370. There he learned how to build his app.

He also met the Fandom team when they came to the Code.7370 graduations.

“When I got out, I reached out to them, and they set me up for an interview,” Schuhmacher said. “They started me with an internship that turned into a full-time job in January.”

Schuhmacher said he’s also working with developers at Santa Clara University’s furlough innovation hub to build the Fitness Monkey app.

Schuhmacher said he talked Fitness Monkey with Lance Armstrong on Armstrong’s new podcast called Forward.

They also talked about taking accountability.

“I think we all fall down sometimes, and we all make mistakes and sometimes we don’t deal with it in the best of ways,” Schuhmacher said. “It’s really about trying to take ownership of it, be responsible, make amends. And I don’t think it’s so much about forgiveness, but it’s about moving forward and just trying to be better than you were the day before.”

Schuhmacher continues to run in solidarity with the 1000 Mile Club.

“The 1000 Mile Club and all the volunteers’ support and encouragement didn’t end at the gate,” Schuhmacher said. “They signed me up for a Dipsea Race in Marin.”

The annual Dipsea Race takes place on a course running through the woods and up and down hills of Mt. Tam. Schuhmacher ran the race last year.

Coach Fitzpatrick has won the race twice.

“They talked about that race for years while we were on the inside,” Schuhmacher said.

Through an email list, Schuhmacher gets updates on all the 1000 Mile races in San Quentin.

“When I hear about those events, I do my own event on the outside,” Schuhmacher said. “When they were doing the New Year’s Day half-marathon, I got a couple of buddies and we did a half-marathon in solidarity with the guys at San Quentin. I tell everyone I can about the positive stuff that those guys are doing. It’s really important to me. I never want to lose that connection.”