Nik's Run for Addiction Awareness - Hendersonville, North Carolina - Running

The Nik's Run for Addiction Awareness is a Running race in Hendersonville, North Carolina consisting of a 5K.

Nik's Run for Addiction Awareness is a 5k Run/Walk to raise awareness of our country's Opioid Epidemic. More than 60,000 people died from an Opioid overdose alone in 2016 (64,070). That number surpasses the amount of American lives lost in the entirety of the Vietnam War (58,200), according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control).

Nik died from an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 22. Our son first became addicted to prescription painkillers and then turned to heroin. Opioid addiction often begins with prescription painkillers and moves to heroin when the prescriptions become difficult to obtain or are too expensive.Prescription painkillers are FDA approved while heroin is considered an illicit drug. Both prescription painkillers and heroin are derived from the poppy plant which makes their chemical structures highly similar.

Nik's life and passion for running will be celebrated as well as raising Addiction Awareness. Addiction is not a moral issue, nor is it prejudice. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease as quoted by the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse).

The 5k course travels along the beautiful Oklawaha Greenway beginning and ending at Patton Park's small pavilion, in Hendersonville, NC. This is a fast, flat, out and back course. Please join us as we promote getting high on running-NOT DRUGS!!

All proceeds will benefit HopeRx.