On this seventh On Pace Podcast we sit with David Reich, a district judge in Bismarck, North Dakota who in 2014 started a local organization called RADD, which stands for Runners Against Destructive Decisions.

Dave had seen the revolving door of an addicted lifestyle for years where the addiction ends in handcuffs. Following their arrest, the addicts would come in his courtroom, go through the process of conviction, go to jail or probation, get out and then start the cycle over again.

Inspired by a woman out of Fargo named Leane Guerrero LeFrance who had started something similar called Radical Recovery, Dave started RADD to build community through running in hopes to create healthy lifestyle choices and change the behavioral patterns he was seeing.

Five years later and RADD is going strong! Dave talks of one of his first members named Jack who worked his way to a 5k, then a 10k, then a half marathon and now will be setting off for Ecuador for his first marathon in October as part of the RADD team, along with Dave and another community like RADD from Los Angeles called the Skid Row Running Club.

It's these kind of stories that get us all jacked up as we prepare to take on the Bismarck Marathon. We have Grateful Runners here in Northeastern Wisconsin, they have RADD. At the end, we weave these threads and connect these lives and communities through the simple process of one foot in front of the other until we finish what we started.

Thanks, Dave, for your time tonight and what you give to the Bismarck running community and RADD members!

#happypacehappyrace