Organizer found fitness after battling drugs

The chemical use started in the sixth grade.

Albert Lea resident Jessica Bakken said she began smoking marijuana, and then turned to everything from alcohol to LSD to cocaine. After attending her first round of treatment when she was 15, Bakken returned to her chemical dependency use, expanding into methamphetamine.

Things are different nowadays. She is combining her passion as a counselor with her passion for running as one of the organizers of the inaugural Blazing 5k/10k on Saturday.

“Exercise is very important for anybody but also for recovery,” Bakken said. “Because it’s spirit, mind and body.”

The run is a fundraiser for Fountain Center’s recreational programming and the Albert Lea Family Y’s youth fund drive.

Bakken said she knows the value exercise and recreation have played into her own recovery.

It wasn’t until 2005 that she realized the effect her addictions were having on her relationship with her then 13-year-old son. She said that was her turning point.

Since then, Bakken, now 41, has successfully gone through treatment and has become a licensed alcohol and drug counselor with Fountain Centers, a program for substance abuse and addiction through Mayo Clinic Health System. She helps others who have been in her shoes and are working to rise above their addictions.

The runs start at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Blazing Star Trail, 128 S. Garfield Ave. The cost is $30 per person for the 5-kilometer run and $40 for the 10-kilometer run.

Bakken said the 5-kilometer run goes from the Blazing Star Trail parking lot on Garfield Avenue to Myre-Big Island State Park, and then participants are bused back. For the 10k, participants run both ways.

Registration and packet pickup is from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Albert Lea Family Y and from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. Saturday.

The races are in honor of the Y’s 100th anniversary and Fountain Center’s 40th anniversary.

Fountain Centers will also have a celebration Saturday with motivational speaker and running legend Dick Beardsley, who overcame prescription pain medication addiction.

Social hour begins at 5 p.m., with dinner and the program to follow. Cost for each person is $10.