Ten years ago, Courtney Scarberry was a victim of emotional abuse and sexual assault. Today, she only now is beginning to accept the truth in that statement.
Scarberry was stranded, jobless, homeless, and caring for her six-month-old son. With a mind screaming to lock herself in her room and wait for death, she had a person that needed her. And so with no other choice, she found employment and began a new journey to self-rediscovery.
Living with her parents and commuting to work, Scarberry’ life became a boring daily ballet of transportation, day-care drop offs and pickups, and corporate call-center work. She needed some way to let off steam to feel alive again. She didn’t turn to drugs or alcohol; She found running.
Her son was napping and her parents were home, and with some left over clothes and sneakers she had from high school she took off on a 3 mile run. After this run it was a domino effect/affect. Running became consistent. She felt as if she was breathing in all her frustration and blowing it out with each step. Hate, fear, anger, guilt, and sadness drove her through each mile. She’d then return home to her son less angry, more willing to play with him, and engage in a way she just couldn't before.
3 mile runs eventually progressed into 10 mile runs. She gradually embraced this new lifestyle she was creating for herself and would soon begin signing up for races and half-marathons. She was hooked. She found something that would teach her how to love again and give her confidence.
With this new sense of awareness, Scarberry took to her workplace a new attitude. Seeing opportunities and seizing them put her on a new career path that allowed her to move out of her parents place with her son and to enroll him in a preschool. Scarberry found herself leaving that dark place she once existed in. She found a new community of people and through their common interests she evolved.
As a consumer and ambassador of Run Gum, not only does Scarberry chew the gum to help her through workouts and races but she admires the diversity of Run Gum’s community,
“The Run Gum community itself is a melting pot of people from different backgrounds and experiences, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I hope that in telling my story, someone who is also struggling can find hope.”-Scarberry