26.2 Miles, 17 Years Strong: Surfside’s Alyssa Fountain Runs for Recovery

Some people celebrate a big anniversary with cake. Alyssa Fountain is celebrating hers with 26.2 miles.

On November 1, Fountain, Chief Marketing Officer and partner at Surfside Recovery, will run the New York City Marathon on the same day she marks 17 years in recovery. It’s her second year running to raise money for Release Recovery Foundation, a nonprofit that funds scholarships for addiction treatment, outpatient care and sober housing. Here’s why she runs, who she runs for, and why it matters right here at the Jersey Shore.

Why She Runs

Last year, Fountain signed up for the marathon because she needed “a big, audacious goal to chase.” She had no idea what to expect, but promised herself she would never skip a training run, heatwaves and 100% humidity included. This year she kept that promise and raised the bar, adding mindful eating, consistent strength training and speedwork.

For Fountain, training and recovery have a lot in common. “It’s easy to do hard things when the conditions are right,” she said. Fourteen miles in a heatwave or ten in the pouring rain is another story. On those days, she remembers everything she has stayed sober through: grief, trauma, big risks, fear and failure.

“I know inherently that ‘this too shall pass’ in every area of my life,” she said, “and afterwards I’m amazed by what’s on the other side of fear.”

When the miles get heavy, she borrows an idea from the teacher Thich Nhat Hanh: inviting the people you love to be with you in the moment, whether or not they’re physically there. She invites them to run with her, repeating a favorite mantra: “Today I will do what others won’t so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.”

“I’ve lost a lot of friends to addiction who desperately wanted to live,” she said. “I’m not willing to waste a second of the life I’ve been gifted.”

Why Release Recovery Foundation

Fountain’s miles are also about opening doors for others. Release Recovery Foundation provides scholarships that help people afford treatment and sober living, and Surfside is one of its trusted partners.

The connection started with a friendship. Zac Clark, a founding board member of Release, has been a friend and advocate of Surfside since the program began in 2016. Around 2019, he asked the Surfside team to help a lifelong friend, saw firsthand how they work, and a partnership grew from there. Clark has since come down the shore to jump into CrossFit workouts with Surfside’s guys, and Fountain has made the trip to New York for Release’s Monday night runs in Central Park.

Those scholarships make Surfside’s long-term approach possible for people from underserved communities who couldn’t otherwise afford it. And Release stays involved long after the check clears, following each recipient’s progress and checking in along the way.

“Over the years, many people that we’ve grown to love passed through our doors as the result of a scholarship,” Fountain said. “We’ve watched them change their lives, and eventually change the world.”

Inside Surfside

So what does a scholarship open the door to? Surfside, based in Somers Point, Linwood and Ventnor, is a long-term, adventure-based recovery program for men facing mental illness and/or substance use disorder. In many ways, it looks a lot like Fountain’s marathon training: plenty of movement, plenty of teamwork and very few folding chairs.

“We believe that people deserve to create an identity that extends beyond their diagnosis or a label like ‘alcoholic’ or ‘drug addict,'” Fountain said. The program’s dual-diagnosis model focuses on executive functioning, independence, community and purpose, and a separate clinical office adds experiential programming for truly wraparound support.

The focus on movement is grounded in science. Fountain points to research showing that challenging physical activity can slowly help repair substance-related damage to the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, a part of the brain tied to emotional regulation and executive functioning.

It also fits the men who walk through the door. Many of them dreaded sitting through lectures in school, Fountain explained, and traditional treatment often means more hours in a chair listening to someone talk. “The same guy who struggled in school will often struggle in treatment,” she said.

Sports make it easier to open up, too. “The small talk during a CrossFit warmup eventually opens the door for deeper, more vulnerable conversations,” Fountain said. And for anyone who worries that a sober life means the end of the fun, sports and hobbies offer something better: purpose, community and a new sense of who they are.

From Scholarship to Neighbor

The results are easy to spot around town. Fountain jokes that if you vacation at the Jersey Shore, you’re meeting Surfside alumni almost everywhere, from Wawa to the grocery store, the UPS store or a high-end restaurant.

“Graduates of Surfside are not just in recovery when they leave us. They are financially independent and self-sufficient,” she said. “They become the next generation of folks that our community relies on almost every day.”

You’ll find proof inside Surfside’s own office, where about 70% of the staff are program alumni. “It’s so incredible to watch someone become unrecognizable,” Fountain said.

One story stays with her. She works with two men who are first cousins. One got sober and became the person his cousin called when he was struggling. Then that cousin found recovery too, and became an integral part of the company. “That story makes me cry sometimes,” she said.

Stronger Together

This year, Fountain is joined by fellow Surfside team member, director Kevin Loalbo, and Tidal Shift Recovery clinician Ryuta Amaike. Both are Surfside alumni, and the three have been logging long training miles side by side all season.

“When I know I’m meeting Ryuta and Kevin for an 18-mile run, the commitment to my word is an extra layer of motivation,” Fountain said. It’s the same lesson recovery teaches: addiction is rooted in isolation, and recovery is grounded in community.

“The three of us are huge believers that recovery from addiction is possible AND amazing,” she said, “because we’ve lived it.”

Cheer Them On

Want to be part of their finish line? You can support Alyssa, Kevin and Ryuta’s run for Release Recovery Foundation through their fundraising pages linked above. Every donation helps open the door to long-term recovery for someone who might not otherwise get the chance, and it just might help create the next local success story. Give what you can, share their pages with friends, and send them some love as they take on New York.