In November of 2014, Keegan Crage ran a lot. He was training for an 80K ultramarathon in Switzerland, and the preparation required him to log hundreds of miles across his home of Perth, a city of nearly two million on the west coast of Australia.
Along those routes, Crage would routinely pass homeless Australians. He wondered, “If I can feel this good when I run, why can’t they?” The answer he arrived at was simple: They could Shoes & Gear.
[Download Your Training Plan? Fundraising Record Broken at 2018 Boston Marathon will take you through everything you need to know to get started, step by step]
The implementation, of course, was more complex. But Crage, now 40, drew from every aspect of his entrepreneurial experience—he currently oversees several businesses and 90 employees across four countries—to make his vision a reality. The result is Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt, a 100 percent volunteer-run nonprofit that now manages running clubs and other programs for at-risk populations in five cities across Australia and South Africa.
The core tenet behind Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt is to use running as a way to bolster soft skills that make someone employable.
“We work on the basis of a hand up, not a handout,” Crage told Runner’s World from Perth. “I wanted to use running as the conduit to give people a path to self sufficiency.”
Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt’s first group runs took place in early 2015, and the organization slowly expanded from there. It connected with shelters, launched a social enterprise program to sustainably raise funds, paid for race fees and registered charity runners in major marathons, opened new chapters in Cape Town and in three more Australian cities, launched walking groups beside the runners, and increased its efforts to find employment opportunities for its regulars.
Ian Brown is one of those regulars. The 59-year-old Australian was broke, homeless, and struggling to find a purpose in life when Crage gave a presentation about Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt at his shelter.
Brown had mild expectations, but was willing to try out anything that might be a clear goal to work toward. After just a few years, his life has been transformed.
Brown has logged over 4,000 miles with Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt and finished 50 to 60 races, including five full marathons. He’s now employed full time by SecondBite, an organization that redistributes leftover produce from supermarkets to shelters and food banks, and is living in independent government housing, the next step from shelter to full independence. He’s even taken on community leadership roles: Brown is Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt’s first brand ambassador, volunteers with his local OMF chapter, and was a pacer for one of his five marathons.
Anyone can go out and run, Brown said, but what Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt provides is a support system of enthusiastic volunteers and empathetic peers struggling through similar issues.
“I had low self esteem, and these guys boosted it up,” Brown said. “Everyone said, ‘I know you can do it, you just have to prove it to yourself.’”
Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt’s slogan is, “For the long run,” and Crage is constantly thinking about how to best achieve both meanings—improving participants’ running ability and their long-term future. His next major project to help achieve that is a mobile app.
In today’s digital-first world, many homeless still keep smartphones as a small way to stay connected. So Crage and his team paired that reality with a nagging barrier to consistent participation: gaps between sessions.
“They say, ‘I feel invisible on the street, isolated, a stranger in my own city. People walk around me,’” Crage said. “All that social exclusion makes them feel like the size of a dime, and once they miss one session, they feel as if they failed, and they don’t want to come back.”
The app would act as a hub for participants to know exactly what’s happening with Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt all the time, but more importantly, would be a reliable means for day-to-day contact. Volunteers could give runners personalized attention, encouraging them to attend, and filling in the gaps on off days. It would also have a diary function through which Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt staff can monitor how an individual is feeling over time.
Building a mobile application, of course, takes a while. As a temporary solution, Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt is now working hard to gather as many cell phone numbers as possible. WhatsApp groups within local chapters are already in the works.
And while those big picture plans run in the background, Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt continues to help hundreds build just a little more confidence and discipline, one mile at a time.
Jacob joined Runner’s World and Bicycling Shoes & Gear after graduating from Northwestern University in 2018, where he studied journalism. His work focuses mainly on news and service pieces for both audiences, with the occasional foray into longer feature work and product reviews. Published: Nov 28, 2018 12:29 PM EST The True Story of the Craziest Olympic Marathon Ian Brown is now an On My Feet ambassador and has completed five marathons.
