Hudsonville man goes from crack addict to avid runner

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Finding the motivation to train and run a ten-kilometer race can be tough.

One West Michigan man used his addiction to drugs and the fact that he lost everything as a reason to run in this year's Fifth Third River Bank Run.

"I've never run for anything, not even for dinner," says Rusty Lee. But now the 45-year-old man is running for his life "It's amazing to care about anything especially myself."

A 13-year-long addiction to crack cocaine is what put him on this path.

"Drugs helped cover up pain," says Lee.  It was the pain of what he thought was an empty life, despite the fact that he owned his own business doing something he loved. "I was an automotive repair business. I repaired leather and vinyl -- pretty much anything inside the car."

It was a successful business that afforded him the ability to build his own home and take long motorcycle trips in Northern Michigan. But it wasn't enough.

"Once I had it all, it was pretty meaningless," says Lee. That's where the drugs came in although at first it was just for fun. "I had tried cocaine, smoked pot, but it never became a habit."

That lasted until the summer of 1998, when Lee tried crack cocaine. "I went on a bike trip with an old friend and he pulled it out and I gave it my first hit and it was off to the races. It was the best feeling I ever had in my life to that point."

And that is the turning point where Lee began to lose control of his life. "Many drug addicts tell you, you chase that first high because you will never feel as good and you will never get as high as that first hit," he says.

And Rusty Lee chased it - hard. The money he earned from his business allowed him to afford his habit for a while. Then he needed to find other resources. "I sold my motorcycle, I sold my house."

And so the downhill spiral began.  "Part of the slide is that I would drive a crappier vehicle, live in a house that generally wasn't very nice," Lee remembers.

Lee was able to keep his business and his drug habit going, until the summer of 2009. "Then it became a chase every day to get enough money to finance that night's habit."

Lee was smoking crack while driving when an officer attempted to pull him over for a traffic violation. "As he is pulling me over I'm gathering it up and throwing it out the window, and he sees this and I know it, I led him on a chase down Baldwin up to 100 miles an hour, my dog sitting next to me and she's freaking out."

The chase ended four miles later. Lee recalls the sound of the sirens. "Defining sounds, finally got me stopped had the gun drawn on me the whole routine. So I end up in jail."

And it was during his six-week sentence that Lee lost his last decent residence, but not his craving for the drug that was literally taking his life.

In November of 2010 another traffic stop led to another jail sentence -- and this time he lost the business he once loved so much. "I get a letter from my brother that informs me that I have been found out stealing from my customers," Lee remembers.

And that's when Lee decided he would end it all. "When I lost my business and I knew I would eventually, then I was gonna commit suicide."

Lee made his way back to the only home he had. "I went back to my motel and assembled what I needed to do the deed. The drugs and the alcohol that I would need to end it. But I couldn't get a room because I owed the motel guy so much money."

And that's where fate intervened. A recovering heroin addict gave Rusty a place to stay. "God used him to help perform a miracle I feel."  He convinced Rusty to get help.

"Before I knew it I was dialing the number of this mission." Lee recalls how he felt when he walked into the Guiding Light Mission. "I got here and I was relieved."

It's where Lee says he made his peace with God. "It was then that I surrendered everything and I just went all in with God and gave Him my anger and frustration over every issue in my life. And I began to experience the peace and contentment that I always wanted."

And he began to run, leaving the past behind and working through the pain both physical and emotional to a better life. "I am a walking, talking miracle," says Lee.  "I'm homeless, I'm jobless, I have no things, and I'm happier than I've ever been in my life."

Because Lee is no longer running from his life - he's living it.

In The Image is sponsoring Rusty Lee and five other runners. The independent, faith-based non-profit organization created the program Run For Recovery to help men just like Lee recover from addiction and build a new life.

You can watch Rusty Lee cross the 10k finish line of the Fifth Third River Bank Run on May 14th.