Lance Armstrong

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.”

Lance Armstrong and Chris Redlitz walking across San Quentin’s Lower Yard

In a small classroom with popular catch phrases like Think Different and Believe in the Process on its walls, about two dozen San Quentin prisoners waited for a surprise guest—the world-renowned, once top cyclist, Lance Armstrong.

“I’ve never been in jail. But I know what it’s like to run afoul of the system,” Armstrong said, on Jan. 11, to inmates enrolled in a highly touted computer coding program.

Venture capitalists Beverly Parenti and Chris Redlitz created Code.7370 in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and California Prison Industry Authority.

“What do you expect?” Redlitz probed the students about Armstrong’s visit. “The unexpected,” several inmates chimed in. “You guys can relate to how life changes,” Redlitz replied.

Armstrong told the class that his life previously revolved around cycling and after falling from grace, he had to rebuild his life.

“I barely squeaked through high school and didn’t attend college,” Armstrong said, adding, “If it weren’t for cycling, hell, I may have ended up here.”

Code.7370 and their instructors posing with Lance Armstrong

The classroom went silent, and then everyone burst out laughing.

Armstrong said he made himself an easy target for the doping investigation by how badly he treated people.

“It was the level of arrogance that got me,” Armstrong said. “Once they compiled all the evidence, the case was made against me.”

In an attempt to rebuild his image after his fall from grace, Armstrong went on Oprah and sheepishly admitted wrongdoing… It did not go over well – he became the face of sports doping.

“The fall was so dramatic that people didn’t want to associate with me,” he said.

Armstrong has continued to address his past.

In an article written last year by Outside Magazine, Armstrong was portrayed as “a humbled man who is working to try to deserve the forgiveness of millions of people who once believed in him.”

He told the students that they didn’t have to endure the kind of public ridicule that he underwent. They could build a fresh start. However, he previously thought it would be difficult to convince an employer to hire someone who had been in prison for murder.

Armstrong, a huge believer in image rebuilding and branding, said he began thinking differently after meeting Redlitz.

“When I asked Chris [Redlitz] how many people got out and came back, and he told me none, I was surprised. That’s the brand. That’s a super powerful message. You guys are part of a movement that is pretty damn surprising.”

He suggested that the men embrace their pasts and go forward. “It’s never straight. You can’t run from it,” Armstrong said. “In 2018, everybody knows everything.”

“Your reputation precedes you. Mine precedes me,” he said. “That’s a hurdle, but you have to get over it. Most people don’t even get to the door.”

“You guys are the example of forward,” Armstrong said, after learning that Mark Zuckerberg visited the program in 2015.

Damon Cooke graduated from the coding program in 2015.

“Once I decided it wasn’t about what is done to me, but how I respond, I found a deeper meaning to my life,” Cooke said.

In a continuing effort to address his conflicted past, Armstrong hosts a weekly podcast, called Forward.

According to Outside Magazine, “Forward is a very deliberately chosen word, and in fact, it defines Armstrong’s new narrative: others may want to or expect to see him curled up in a fetal position in the dark, but he is moving ahead, not allowing himself to be crushed by the weight of the past.”

Ultimately, Armstrong believes that having close friends and family are the most important things in life.

“Some of your friends stay with you,” Armstrong said. “Some lean in. Some lean out. When you get out of here, you’re going to know who your real friends are.”

Armstrong, the ultimate competitor, walked out of the classroom and across the prison yard. He saw the pull-up bar and jumped right on it, pumping to 10 quick chin-ups.

Not to outdo himself, after finding out about the San Quentin Marathon, he challenged the reigning champion, Markelle Taylor, to a run-off at the November meet.

https://sanquentinnews.com/game-theory/

The passion of running stretches beyond the prison walls

Code.7370 host Lance Armstrong