It’s understandable that Tim Blackmore is equal parts psyched and nervous about running the New York City Marathon this weekend.

The race is his first marathon, and the 42-year-old US Marine Corps veteran hopes to finish in under three hours — a benchmark only a small percentage of marathoners achieve.

“I’m a strong runner and want the challenge,” he wrote in a text. But Blackmore never expected to be at the Staten Island starting line.

“If it wasn’t for running,” he told CNN, “I probably wouldn’t be sober.”

When he joins nearly 60,000 other runners in the famous five-borough race on Sunday, it may be hard to tell that he’s spent the past year living in a shelter on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

After his mother died in 2023, Blackmore turned to alcohol and cocaine use.

“Basically, I walked away from my job in Long Island. I walked away from my apartment, and I just didn’t really have anything left,” he said. “I burnt through everything and I just needed to start over.”

He joined a recovery program but kept relapsing. Eventually he entered a detox program and then moved into a shelter that supports people in recovery in 2025. There, he discovered Back on My Feet, a running and community nonprofit that partners with shelters to support people experiencing homelessness.

Blackmore initially ran nearly every day. Now working as a union laborer, he runs about three times a week to help maintain his mental health and marathon training. He invited his twin brother, Daniel Blackmore, to train with him for the marathon, and now Daniel volunteers with the group.

Within months of joining the program, he completed a half marathon. Back on My Feet later sponsored his entry for this year’s New York City Marathon, recognizing him as one of its strongest and most dedicated members. Nine other runners affiliated with the organization are also participating. Four are currently experiencing homelessness, while the others are alumni who have secured housing and employment.

“To know that you’re good at something that’s really hard has really put so much more confidence in me for other hard things in my life,” he said. “I’m a better employee, I’m more dependable, and it’s like running — I’m accountable to myself.”

Running and resilience

For people experiencing homelessness, exercise may seem like a luxury when they’re working to secure housing, employment and other basic needs.

But researchers say exercise can offer benefits far beyond physical fitness.

Dr. Amy J. Kemter, a San Antonio-based therapist and social worker, coauthored a 2022 study examining a pilot running program for people experiencing homelessness and substance use disorder.

She says running can help participants discover they’re stronger than they realized, build confidence and develop social connections.

“If you show up to a race and you are unhoused and you’re in a T-shirt and a dirty pair of running shoes, you literally look like everybody else,” she said. “So it erases all the stigma that kind of goes with that, too.”

For Blackmore, running has accompanied significant changes. He’s maintaining his sobriety, working in construction and preparing to move into his own apartment in December.

Finding calm amid chaos

Over in Brooklyn, 22-year-old Dwayne Ferguson is also preparing for his first marathon. Unlike Blackmore, his goal is simply to finish.

He’s the first among his friends to attempt the distance, and they sometimes joke about it.

“They say ‘good luck’ and they say, ‘damn!’” he said, laughing. “What sane type of person would do that to themselves?”

Ferguson has been staying with his girlfriend’s family since a disagreement with his mother a few months ago left him without a home of his own. He wanted to avoid entering a shelter.

He said he’s grateful for their generosity — but the house is full, he sleeps on a couch, and tensions with a family member have sometimes made the arrangement uncomfortable.

Ferguson is now interning with a program that feeds children and families in need and saving money to rent a room.

Amid that uncertainty, running has become a source of calm.

“It takes a lot of stress off my shoulders, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve been able to sleep a little bit better, think a lot better. It’s just been peaceful running, feeling the wind.”

Ferguson learned about the marathon through Next PAGE, a trauma-informed creative writing program for youth in detention and reentry. After he wrote about his love for running and wanting to meet male role models, the program’s founder, Emily Palmer, encouraged him to enter the race and connected him with a running group called Harlem Run. One of the group’s leaders, Jesse Liriano, sponsored his race registration, and the running group also helped him secure a shoe sponsor.

Training hasn’t always gone as planned. Between work and school, and the stress of figuring out whether he has enough money to buy food, finding time to run has been difficult. And while Blackmore has found community through group runs, Ferguson often prefers to run alone, especially in the morning.

Why physical activity matters

Jo Dawes, a physiotherapist and principal research fellow in primary care and population health at University College London, coauthored a 2024 systematic review examining physical activity among adults experiencing homelessness.

Her research found that physical activity can support health and well-being, foster social connections and help participants develop a sense of achievement.

Dawes says it’s a mistake to assume exercise matters less to people experiencing homelessness than it does to those with stable housing.

“ Whether we have a home or not, we’re all humans, we all have our needs, we all need to be well,” she said.

Homelessness also takes different forms. While Blackmore has been living in a shelter, Ferguson’s temporary living arrangement illustrates how people can have a roof over their heads without having secure housing.

More than a finish line

The finish line may be in Central Park, but Blackmore and Ferguson say they plan to keep running long after they cross it. For both men, the marathon represents another milestone in lives that are changing.

As Blackmore prepares to move into his own apartment, he has his sights set on an ultramarathon.

Ferguson recently earned his GED and hopes to attend college. He also hopes his friends and family will be proud.

“I like to inspire people to do more, not only for others, but for themselves,” he said. “So running, I would like for them to see that as, ‘Oh, he’s running. Maybe I could, you know, do something that I like to do.’”

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