It was the first of many bitterly cold fall mornings in Omaha.
Temperatures never broke 40 degrees as sleet pelted a service road behind the Omaha Correctional Center, a minimum-to-medium-security prison near Eppley Airfield. Thirty-three incarcerated men, some of them in tank tops and shorts, lined up at the starting line. And then they started to run.
Bright-colored shoes slammed against the pavement. Volunteers clad in coats and mittens stood at the sidelines with clipboards to track their assigned runners. In a makeshift aid station, they handed out cups of water and Gatorade as the runners passed by…