I'm no track star, but I run like a gazelle

So this last sunday I had to work a 24 hour shift. It's not so bad now, goes by pretty quick and I enjoy the work I do, which helps out. It's about 11:45, I'm in the dorm with my family of 8 boys, the boys are enjoying a constructive free time when all of a sudden over the radio I hear a "Code Red! The student is running towards the mountains by Stone Ridge". Translation: Code Red means someone is trying to run away. Stone Ridge is the campus that I work at, meaning the "runner" is close to me. So I get up, put my family on a "white out" which means they can't talk and have to do exactly what I say, I tell them all to get in one spot, had the staff across the hall watch my family, and I run out to where it was happening.


This boy that ran was in "Homeless" meaning he had just gotten to the program (about 2 weeks ago) and was going through the first componate of the program called Homeless. His homeless group was taking a bathroom break at the port-a-potties when he decided to take off. Now this kid was on a Run Watch, so he didn't have any shoes, just flip-flops, which he took off, and was running through the desert in only socks (not such a great idea for the record). I get there and asked the Homeless staff which way the kid went, my boss type guy was running over and I asked him if I could take off after the student and he said yes. So I take off. And I'm running running running, until finally I see the kid who is about 100 yards ahead of me. He sees me running after him and he takes off again. He is following the base of this mountain and takes a bend around to where I couldn't see him. By the time I get to the bend he is no where in sight, so I head up a hill to get a better view and I see him, so I run towards him, around another bend and he sees me coming after him. By this time I am within 15-20 yards of him and I start to yell out to him "Stop! Stop or it is going to hurt! STOP OR IT WILL HURT!" To which he just falls to the ground. I get up to him, grab him by the back of his shirt, and asked him if he was going to come peacefully or if I needed to escort him. He chosed to come peacefully. I radioed that I had caught him and where we were at. And we started walking back.


Got to where everyone else was, they took him from me, and I stood back to throw up a little bit in the bushes. Seriously, from the time I heard the Code Red until the time I had caught him took only about 10 mins, and it was about a mile out that I caught him. When my boss guy got to the kid he says "What were you thinking?!!? You never even had a chance! See this guy right here? (Pointing to me) He is like a gazelle, you never had a chance!"


And that is how I became a "hero" or sorts. The kids give me even more respect now because they never thought I was so fast, or that I could even catch him. A lot of different staff (like big important guys there) have been giving me props saying "I hear you are getting stuff done out there! That's great" and one even told me that the kid I caught told him "If I had known Daniel was that fast I wouldn't have even tried, I didn't know he was that quick".






For the record. I'm not that fast. It's just easy to catch out of shape drug addicted teenagers. Who are running in socks through the desert.




But I'm still the hero at work.