Imagine that you're homeless, addicted to crack, and standing on line at a shelter on a sweltering July morning for a free breakfast. Now fast-forward three months. You're at the same shelter, but you're lacing up a pair of running shoes and getting set for your daily five-mile run across the Ben Franklin Bridge, which connects Philadelphia and New Jersey. And you're not alone: you've got five or six friends, also homeless and recovering addicts. Together, you comprise an unlikely running club, and individually, you're each outpacing your demons.

The origins of the club are as unlikely as the club itself. In the summer of 2007, Anne Muhlan, a 27-year-old woman from North Dakota, had just quit her job in public relations, was about to take another, and in the interim started jogging past the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission in downtown Philadelphia early in the morning. The guys there would shout to her as she passed, and one day she smiled back. They introduced themselves, and before long, she convinced them to go running with her.

She never made it to that new job, and instead founded Back On My Feet, a non-profit that, in the words of its mission statement, "promotes the self-sufficiency of the homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem."

The five original BOMF guys, all homeless men from Philadelphia, trained as a team for the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in November, 2007. The fastest, a 40-something widower named Mike Solomon, finished in an hour and 48 minutes -- just over eight minutes per-mile. Not bad for a guy whose first run was a crack-fueled sprint to the liquor store to buy a six-pack of beer.

BOMF is now much more than a running club. It offers help with job training, educational scholarships and housing. Muhlan seems to understand that helping the homeless in the long term requires more than a daily run. It's about keeping them on their feet.

BOMF has just launched a Baltimore chapter, and is looking for volunteers to start chapters in their cities and towns.

[Image: Mike Solomon]