Native Utahn finds redemption from drug addiction through running

Native Utahn finds redemption from drug addiction through running


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SALT LAKE CITY — Even as she chose to ravage her life with drugs, Shanna Frost felt an overwhelming urge to run away from them.

But the grip methamphetamines had on her was too tight, too destructive, too complete.

“My addiction took precedence over everything in my life,” said the 48-year-old Orderville, Utah, native. “It became my life. I would put my kids to bed and I’d go on a drug run to Las Vegas.”

For 15 years, drugs dictated when she worked, who she associated with, and what lengths she would go to in order to continue consuming toxic chemicals.

“I was still involved in my family, my community,” the current North Dakota resident said. “I went to all of my kids’ activities, and I still ran my cleaning business. That’s another reason it was hard for my community to believe it. … It just kind of slowly took me down.”

It took an arrest to move her to action, but she’d wanted to quit long before she took the steps to do so.

And then, quite literally, she ran away from addiction.

“I got my kids into counseling, and I started running,” said Frost, who will run the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back this weekend to celebrate her nearly eight years of sobriety and to honor her late brother. “I took an hour out of every day and it was all about me and my running.”

Reasons to Run:

Her first race was the Biggest Loser 5K in St. George three years ago.

“That was fantastic,” she said. “When I crossed the finish line, I thought, ‘This is what I want to do!’” The euphoria and sense of accomplishment was something she said she’d never experienced in her life. Running gave her peace; it infused her with energy; and it restored health to her badly damaged body.

She isn’t sure whether she would have been able to remain sober without the sport, but she knows it has been key in her recovery.

“I know every step I took ... I was running away from it,” she said of her addiction. “It kept me away from it. I looked at it like that. I don’t look at my running as that now.”

Now it is a way to honor her brother and celebrate just how beautiful a sober life can be.

Frost was born in Panguitch and raised in the small town of Orderville in Southern Utah. As a teen she dabbled in drugs — marijuana and cocaine — but it wasn’t until she tried meth that she lost herself to a chemical high. She owned her own cleaning business and was looking for a way to clean faster.

“When you first start using it, it gives you that energy,” she said. “And then, all of a sudden, it has a hold of you.”

While she juggled raising her children with running her own business, she used drugs as fuel. It kept her thin, gave her energy and made her feel calm in the midst of life’s storms.

But at some point it stopped being a crutch and became what crippled her. It damaged relationships with family members and destroyed her marriage.


I know every step I took ... I was running away from it. It kept me away from it. I looked at it like that. I don't look at my running as that now.

–Shanna Frost, runner


“I was hurting my kids,” she said. “I was hurting my family. I was really, really messed up when my dad died, and I was telling everybody I wasn’t using when I was, and it was a big issue. … It wasn’t what caused my dad’s death, but I think it contributed. That threw me into the worst. ... I could see myself spiraling down.”

She heard the police might be aware that she wasn’t just using but also selling drugs, so she put her house in her adult daughter’s name and sent her four children to stay with her.

“They hadn’t been moved in with her but maybe a week when the police came and arrested me,” she said. “I spent a night in jail, but I knew I had to quit.”

She used the rest of the drugs that were in her house and then she locked herself inside and quit.

“I had seizures,” she said. “I just wanted to die.”

She might have if one of her children hadn’t convinced one of her friends to go to the house and check on her. He found her miserably sick and took her to his house, where he watched over her for a week.

“I probably should have been in a hospital,” she said. “He kept me alive. I had seizures for three weeks, and my hands would just shake for months. I couldn’t work.”

She realized very quickly that unless she did something different, she would just go back to drugs.

“I was still in that same playground,” she said. “I was hanging around the same friends, and they still had influence over me. I had to get away from it. That’s when I went out and started getting into running.”

Her first run was a block.

Related:

“I realized I had to get back to the house,” she said. “I really thought I was going to die. I’d run for a minute and then walk for five minutes for the first little while.” As she got healthier, she got stronger.

“One of the reasons I liked the drugs is that it kept me thin,” she said. “Running helped me keep the weight down without the drugs and I actually started to look healthy.”

She was eventually sentenced for her dealing to 90 days in jail and she also spent time at the prison undergoing a diagnostic evaluation. After she served her jail time, she entered rehab.

“I was in rehab for 56 days,” she said. “My arrest and going to the prison, jail and rehab was the worst part of my life and the best part of my life. It showed me what I didn’t want in my life and what was going to be waiting for me if I didn’t change. Rehab taught me so much that I use to stay sober everyday.”

Because she’d quit using drugs seven months before she went to jail, she left rehab with a year of sobriety. That felt good, but it did not guarantee she’d be able to stay clean in the real world.

“When I got out it was tough, really tough,” she said. “My old buddies were coming around, wanting me to get high with them.”

She clung to running like a life raft.

Slowly it transformed her life, offering her better health, real joy and a way to meet people who wanted her to stay sober — not sink back into drug addiction.

“I’ve been sober long enough, and I’m in such a good place, that I don’t mind talking about it,” she said. “I’m not ashamed of it. I’ve fixed all my wrongs as best I could.”

She and her ex-husband have reconciled and she has repaired her relationships with her family. She said it was the love, support and faith of her mother, Nellie Mae Frost, that buoyed her during the worst of her recovery.

“It took a lot of time to re-earn the trust of my family,” she said. “She literally was my spiritual pick-up. She was my lifeline.”

At some point, running evolved from something that carried her away from drugs to something that moved her toward redemption. Her niece invited her to run the Ragnar Relay in honor of her late brother, J.H. Frost, who died a year ago.

“This is a big deal to me,” Frost said. “I’m running to celebrate my sobriety, but I’m also running to honor my brother. I’d always wanted to do one of these races, and now I have the chance.” Twitter: adonsports Email: adonaldson@deseretnews.com

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Amy Donaldson

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