PUBLISHED 08/01/2007
After that first race in June 1995, she felt something more. "The race gave me such a feeling of accomplishment that I felt at that moment I was crossing over from being sick to being well," she says.
Today, Mooney, 28, who works as a youth advocate in a Big Sister Program in Newburgh, N.Y., still faces her affliction. But she has a new ally. "Running has given me courage to fight, and to trust in myself," she says. "It's a way of giving my mind a break. I can relax and not think manic thoughts. All in all, running keeps me on an even keel."
And it's better than drugs. "I don't need a prescription," she says. "I don't get dry mouth, gain weight or suffer from diarrhea--the side effects of the drugs I was taking. Instead I get increased self-confidence and self-esteem.
"Running has made me a whole person again."
LIN IVICE
For Lin Ivice, weekends were made for Michelob--and so was every other day of the week. "I'd start with a few beers at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning," she says. "When I ran out, I'd switch to vodka or anything I could get my hands on. My weekends were a blur. Drinking was a way of life. On weekdays, the only thing that changed was that I started right after work instead of in the morning."
Ivice quit drinking cold turkey on her 31st birthday in 1985. "I was sitting in my room getting ready to drink myself into oblivion when a profound sense of loneliness overcame me," she says. "I said to myself, 'Enough is enough.' "
As part of her program to quit drinking, Ivice started exercising. It was doubly tough because her alcoholism was coupled with bulimia. "I barely had enough energy to walk across the room without falling over," she says. Then one day a friend suggested they go on a run together. "I was never athletic," she says. "When I was in high school, I was always the one getting her finger jammed against the volleyball. I was geeky, dorky. But running was something I could do."
Running's benefits were twofold. "It not only felt good to get out there and move," she says, "but in a way running was, and still is, a spiritual experience for me. After so many years of being locked away, running gave me motivation to take charge of my life."
Today, Ivice, 44, has left her "unathletic" self behind for good: she's a personal trainer in Chicago. Besides running 25 to 30 miles a week and doing plenty of step aerobics with her clients, she's become a devotee of weight training. She hasn't had a drink in more than 12 years, and she maintains a healthy vegetarian diet. "I even eat peanut butter," she says. "That was something I wouldn't get close to when I was bulimic."
Ivice is thankful that running came her way. "Running is a real part of my recovery," she says. "It might sound corny, but to me, running has prepared me for the rest of my life."
