A bear of a Bloomsday: Brenton Sconce finished 7.46 miles on all fours a day after the race began to help those in recovery
May 5-Since March of last year, Brenton Sconce has bear-crawled 1 to 2 miles almost every day in preparation for the 50th Bloomsday.
On Monday around 9:47 a.m., Sconce's hard work paid off as he crossed the finish line on the Monroe Street Bridge just under 23 hours after undertaking his onerous odyssey.
As Sconce tended to his raw, blistered hands and tried not to pick at the dead skin peeling off of his palms, he reflected on what drove him to bear-crawl for 7.46 miles.
"Everything has changed since being in recovery and finding my identity more solidly in Christ," Sconce said. "That opens up doors for me to start thinking possibilities of like, 'Oh, I think I can do something like that.'"
Last May, Sconce launched his addiction recovery organization BEAR, which is an acronym for "build, empower, achieve and recover." So far, Sconce's crawl on all fours has raised around $9,000 in scholarships for people needing aftercare, and the money is still funneling in.
Aftercare is any type of ongoing care people receive after leaving rehab. It often materializes in the form of 12-step programs, group therapies and sober housing. Sconce said aftercare often isn't covered by insurance, even though it's crucial for folks on the road to recovery.
"I received a scholarship four years ago and was able to use that, and that established the foundation for my recovery journey," Sconce said. "So I knew I wanted to give that back."
Sconce was inspired to bear-crawl Bloomsday after learning about a 27-year-old who did it 26.2 miles during the New York City Marathon in 2020 to raise money and awareness for mental health.
An article from Harvard Medical School describes the bear-crawl as a body-weight exercise where a person moves along the ground using only their hands and feet. It's meant to improve mobility, balance and coordination by engaging multiple muscles at the same time. A person's shoulders should be aligned with their wrists, their back should be straight, and their hips should be over their knees.
Sconce's swollen wrists and numb hands were a telltale sign of his willpower to finish the race in a bear crawl. There were points, many during the middle of the night, when Sconce said he "really, really wanted to quit," but reaching the finish line was non-negotiable.
While he wore gloves and took frequent breaks to stretch and mentally prepare for the next leg of his journey, Sconce said every part of his body was in agony by the time he finished. When times got difficult, he turned to the people surrounding him and urging him forward. The group would regularly stop to read scripture, pray together and utter encouraging words to keep Sconce motivated.
Sconce's mother, Lori Sconce, walked alongside him for part of the course, starting at 10 p.m. Sunday and staying with him until about 5:30 a.m. Monday morning. She rejoined him at 9:40 a.m., just before he crossed the finish line . His father Matt, meanwhile, walked with Sconce from the beginning of Bloomsday until about 10 p.m. Sunday night when he switched with Lori Sconce.
"His life's been saved and his family has been given a chance because he went through this hard work," Lori Sconce said. "I saw a lady tell him that every step he took was what it really looked like for her to recover."
Upon realizing and admitting that his addiction to alcohol was serious, Brenton Sconce checked into rehab in 2022. He said the three and a half weeks of rehab weren't enough time for him to establish healthy habits. Just before getting discharged, his case manager informed him he had been offered a scholarship for aftercare that allowed him to "get a bunch of tools in his toolbox for recovery." Because he was able to access further treatment and develop coping skills, Sconce has been sober since July 2022.
He now works as a chaplain at a hospice facility in town. He called his job a sad but encouraging and unique opportunity to be there for people as they deal with end-of-life anxiety and other spiritual struggles.
Sconce, 40, ran Bloomsday once before about 12 years ago. Last year, though, he watched Bloomsday for reconnaissance purposes. He's known he was going to bear-crawl the 50th Bloomsday for the past year and a half.
Bethany Lueck, the Lilac Bloomsday Association spokesperson, said Sconce reached out about a year ago to ask permission to bear-crawl the event. When Sconce crossed the finish line 22 hours , 58 minutes after he started, Lueck was there holding makeshift finish line tape and a yellow finisher shirt.
With all the training runs Sconce completed, he expected to cross the Bloomsday finish line in eight to 10 hours. But the heat and the need to keep re-wrapping his hands extended his time. Before Sunday's run, the furthest he ever bear-crawled was about 5 1/2 miles.
In the future, Sconce plans to bear-crawl some more races, but admits he probably won't be doing another 12K any time soon. He said he plans to launch BEAR as a nationwide foundation and start offering aftercare scholarships across the country. More information will be available in the next couple months.
In the shorter term, Sconce is planning to eat lots of food and do nothing but rest. His swollen joints, beet-red palms and the dead skin peeling off his fingers need at least a few days to return to some semblance of normal.
"The biggest thing to let people know about is that when you offer scholarship, when you help support the scholarship, you're helping somebody regain themselves and give them the best chance at living an amazing life," Sconce said.
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