Flying Saucer CHARLOTTE LITTLE ROCK
S T. L OU I S KANSAS CITY NASHVILLE MEMPHIS
AUSTIN HOUSTON
ADDISON
SAN ANTONIO
FORT WORTH SUGAR LAND
THE LAKE CORDOVA COLUMBIA RALEIGH *
*VIA GREENVILLE
he ends the streak.... But his spirit was running here before he started, because what Raven does can’t be of the body.” Butcher, running alongside, seconded the effects of Raven’s positive aura. “I used to have an anger management problem,” he confessed. Three years ago, fresh out of prison for drug trafficking, Butcher was seeking a regimen to get his life back on track when, at the pull-up bars, Raven invited him to run. “A guy I was in jail with told me, ‘You gotta find a group to be a part of or something to get involved in,’” recalled Butcher. “Because, you know, there’s no transition from prison to the free world.” After working up to the eight miles, Butcher set out to run with Raven every day for 100 days but instead kept the streak going for 200, setting a record among the Raven Run regulars. “It’s not only Raven but all the positive people you meet out here. I was in a really dark place, and the run just sucks the negativity out of you,” he said. These days Butcher is a calm but demanding personal trainer whose clients include fellow Raven Runners. “God only knows where I’d be without Raven and this run. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” The man himself doesn’t wax poetic about his accomplishments. Raven is just hoping to stay the course—the one that measures eight miles—a little bit longer. “I’ve found the place I’m most comfortable,” he says, digging deep on yet another day. “Everyone has a place where they shine, and this is where I shine.” Writer Laura Lee “White Lightning” Huttenbach is currently penning Raven’s biography, and photographer Mary Beth “Yellow Rose” Koeth is making a Kickstarter-funded film about his life.
www.beerknurd.com
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