'A band of brothers': How a running club at an Omaha prison taught perseverance, connection from the inside-out

It was the first of many bitterly cold fall mornings in Omaha.

Temperatures never broke 40 degrees as sleet pelted a service road behind the Omaha Correctional Center, a minimum-to-medium-security prison near Eppley Airfield. Thirty-three incarcerated men, some of them in tank tops and shorts, lined up at the starting line. And then they started to run.

Bright-colored shoes slammed against the pavement. Volunteers clad in coats and mittens stood at the sidelines with clipboards to track their assigned runners. In a makeshift aid station, they handed out cups of water and Gatorade as the runners passed by.

Twenty-six laps.

A little over 13 miles.

Three hours.

The OCC Run Crew’s inaugural half-marathon on Nov. 8 exceeded the organizer’s expectations. The fastest runner finished in an hour and 26 minutes, and even the men who couldn’t quite complete the entire 13.1 miles in the three-hour allotted time were greeted at the finish line by their peers and volunteers cheering.

“These guys just kept going and going,” Connie Garro, one of the volunteers, said. “I guarantee we could describe how they each were throughout this entire half marathon. Every one of them was different.”

There was the man who started off the program insistent that he wouldn’t run – only walk – and then ran 11 miles in three hours as an ecstatic group gathered to chant his name on the final lap. A few who cried after crossing the finish line; one who was so excited to be done so he could call his family and tell them he did it. A group of five men who ran the entire race alongside one another.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services did not permit media to watch the race and declined to make prison staff available for a verbal interview. But OCC Deputy Warden Sarah Hoff said in a written statement that she was inspired by the documentary "26.2 to Life," which profiles a similar program in California’s San Quentin Prison.

“With the support of my Warden James Jansen, I reached out to the Omaha Running Club to start the conversation and see if they would be willing to partner with us to start a similar program at OCC,” Hoff said in the statement. “They had a very positive response from their running community, indicating we had enough volunteers to make this program a reality.”

Blake Ziegler, a member of the Omaha Running Club who found himself taking the lead on the OCC program, said he and other volunteers started working with Hoff to put together a proposal. The state approved the plans, and they started weekly Monday night practices in May.

Ziegler and the other volunteers thought the OCC Run Crew might be a hit, but they were still blown away by the amount of interest they received: Sixty-two men signed up.

At the first practice, the volunteers realized that prison-issued tennis shoes weren’t going to cut it.

“The stuff they had been issued were worse than the worst Kmart shoes you can imagine,” David Reddel, a volunteer, said. “We talked about that – we have to get shoes. And we will.”

Then came the challenge of finding enough shoes in the variety of sizes the runners needed. Reddel, an ambassador for Hoka, received 60 pairs of running shoes from the high-end brand. Fleet Feet and Peak Performance, two running stores based in Omaha, donated dozens of pairs of lightly used shoes. And for the more obscure sizes, the volunteers turned to their friends and broader running community for extra kicks. Ziegler soon found himself stashing 70 pairs of shoes in his basement.

When they brought the new shoes to OCC, Reddel said it was “like Christmas morning.”

“Not even just Christmas morning,” Garro said. “They wanted to run a marathon right when they threw them on.”

“They were saying, ‘these are the best shoes I’ve ever had,’” Ziegler said. “They were running in place. We’re trying to, like, get them signed off on the sheet of what shoe they’re going to have. And they just wanted to go run outside.”

In between practices, the men were able to check out their own pair of shoes to practice in during the week. They learned proper running form and stretches to help with sore muscles. Before the half marathon came to fruition, they ran one-mile and 5K races.

Andrew Blume was released from OCC on parole in September before he could compete in the 5K or the half-marathon. But he said the OCC Run Crew was “one of the coolest programs” he was involved in through years of incarceration. He credits physical exercise – including running – with keeping his head in the right place as he focuses on staying sober and reconnecting with his family

“Running is something positive for me to be involved in out here so I don’t go back to my old ways,” he said. “It keeps me away from all that.”

The same was true for Jake George, who finished second in the 5K race before he was released from prison late last month. He said the long races taught him “mental discipline” and gave him a community to turn to while incarcerated.

“There were a few of us I was pretty good friends with that were involved in the run group, so we’d all go out every Saturday morning and run together,” he said.

Ziegler also makes it a point to keep in touch with the runners after their release from prison, providing them with a list of resources for running groups and stores to support them. He sent Blume and George a pair of shoes so they can continue to run. And he keeps up to date on how they’re doing on a personal level as they reintegrate into the community.

“I was texting Jake the other day, and he’s super pumped – he got a job, he got his license” Ziegler said as he started to tear up. “Just huge things. It was so cool to hear that. And he was texting me after the half marathon because he wanted to know how all his friends did.”

For all the good the run crew did for the incarcerated men, it did the same for the volunteers. Few had prior experience working within prisons, but they each had unique motivations for taking part in the program. Garro saw it as an extension of her service at the Omaha Police Department, where she was an officer for decades. Reddel said his Christian faith compels him to be generous with his time. Running was an integral part of Ziegler’s recovery from alcoholism, and he wanted to share that with others dealing with addiction.

It also taught them about the power of connection. Reddel said the group became like "a band of brothers."

“When you go into the prison walls and you tear those stereotypes down, they’re more generous than we are,” Reddel said. “And not only that, they’re transparent and vulnerable. They want to be seen, and they want you to see them, and we do. Being able to share life with them, and watching them grow – like Jake and Andrew, they’re outside the walls now and are going to lead great lives because they’ve been part of this.”

The OCC Run Crew will take a few months of downtime in the winter, though they plan to do some indoor activities at least monthly and hold a screening of the documentary that inspired the program. It’s a difficult adjustment for the volunteers – Ziegler said the Monday night practices became one of the best parts of his week.

After the success of the first year, they know they’ll have a lot more interest from inmates, volunteer runners and people who just want to pitch in. Ziegler encouraged people interested in getting involved to join a local run club or community and see what volunteer opportunities might arise.

And, he said, they’ll probably need more shoes.