When Yassine Diboun checked himself right into a 28-day inpatient restoration program in 2004, he would have by no means dreamed that his life trajectory would deliver him to ultrarunning and serving to others fighting habit. However, 19 years later, when racing the 2023 Exhausting Rock 100Diboun acquired a glimpse of the affect he was having. He’d rolled his ankle about 30 miles in — badly spraining it — and says that he was feeling “actually bummed” and limping down the highway when one other racer approached and advised him, “I simply needed to let you already know, I simply hit 5 years sober.” He’d heard Diboun on a podcast and had been impressed to pursue habit restoration. Instantly pulled from his psychological low, Diboun went on to complete the race.
Yassine Diboun climbing throughout the 2023 Hardrock 100. Picture: Steven Mortinson
For Diboun, speaking about working and restoration go hand in hand. He wouldn’t have found working — and loved an extended, profitable profession as knowledgeable path runner and ultrarunner — if he had not first chosen to pursue a path of restoration. “I wouldn’t have any of these items that I’ve in my life at the moment if it wasn’t for restoration,” stated Diboun. “That’s nonetheless an important factor in my life.” Diboun, who co-founded the Wy’east Wolfpack — which helps folks prepare for races or journey journeys and runs youth and company wellness applications — stays dedicated to serving to others pursue their goals.
Working Down the Unsuitable Path
Diboun grew up in Pennsylvania and went to highschool in Orlando, Florida, the place he performed basketball. After highschool, he acquired swept up in partying. After a yr enjoying basketball for Juniata Faculty in Pennsylvania, Diboun moved to Golden, Colorado — sight unseen at age 21 — to be nearer to his brother and provides himself a contemporary begin. Nonetheless, the occasion life-style adopted him. “I lived a wild and damaging life,” Diboun recalled. Working within the service trade, his life turned a cycle of snowboarding, working, and partying. By 2004, he realized that his life had turn into unmanageable. “Unhealthy issues had been occurring with medicine and alcohol,” he shared. His brother and mother intervened, and Diboun stated, “I used to be actually receptive to it.”
It took an intervention from Diboun’s mother and brother to assist him notice he was on the improper path. Picture: James Richard Kao
Diboun’s brother had moved to Ithaca, New York, and after about 4 years of dwelling in Colorado, Diboun adopted him once more, looking for one other contemporary begin. Nonetheless, his life-style adopted him as soon as once more, and in New York, Diboun stated, “I noticed I couldn’t cease.” He defined, “I believed I might cease with willpower … however I used to be fairly closely hooked on medicine, alcohol, and nicotine.” As soon as once more, his brother and mother intervened and advised him they’d had sufficient. Now 25 years previous, Diboun determined he had additionally had sufficient, and in July 2004, he checked himself right into a 28-day inpatient restoration program.
Restoration and Working
Diboun stated that this system was “the place my path of restoration began.” In this system, he realized about himself, his patterns of habits, and why he drank and used. “I had a religious awakening, if that’s what you wish to name it,” he stated. “I had this second of readability the place I noticed that this chapter of my life was over.” Throughout restoration, Diboun gained consciousness about how his emotions influenced the best way he thought and led to detrimental self-talk, in addition to how his behaviors impacted these round him. He realized easy methods to change the best way he talked — significantly about himself — and adjusted the folks with whom he surrounded himself. His life rapidly adopted go well with: He acquired higher sleep, ate higher, began working, and at six months of sobriety, he stop smoking.
Though he’d been exercising and lifting weights, Diboun determined he wanted cardio to assist curb the cravings for cigarettes, so he began working. “I by no means actually appreciated working,” Diboun admitted. “I ran for sports activities, however I by no means simply … ran.” Nonetheless, he rapidly realized that he not solely appreciated working, however he was fairly good at it.
It didn’t take lengthy for Diboun to appreciate he was good at working. Picture courtesy of Yassine Diboun.
Someday, somebody from his 12-step program noticed him out working and recommended that he join the native YMCA triathlon. On a borrowed bike and with little swimming expertise, Diboun raced his first triathlon in 2005. The swimming portion befell within the YMCA pool, and Diboun, nonetheless freshly off cigarettes, needed to cease on the finish of every lap to catch his breath. “It was painful,” he recalled. “I had a headache all day, most likely from dehydration, however I liked it!” He additionally found that he thrived on the self-discipline of coaching. “I now had this construction that I lacked in my prior life,” Diboun defined. “That’s why lots of people in restoration flip to endurance sports activities. It’s actually redirecting that vitality, that obsessive compulsive habits, into one thing optimistic.”
Diboun continued coaching for triathlons, working up from dash to Olympic distances. He acquired his personal gear and even got here to like the meditative motion of swimming. In 2006, he signed up for a similar YMCA triathlon, now extra assured and hoping to come back again and win. Nonetheless, on his remaining coaching trip, only a week earlier than the race, he collided with a van and was severely injured. “It simply took a break up second,” Diboun shared. “My life flashed (earlier than) my eyes.” After being life-flighted to a trauma heart and handled for a damaged scapula, head harm, and highway rash on his shoulder and arm that required a pores and skin graft from his leg, Diboun, shaken, understood how rapidly life can change. “Life is brief,” he determined. “I’m going to run wildly towards my goals.”
Diboun on the 2013 Cayuga Trails 50 Mile with race director Ian Golden. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
As he healed, Diboun actually ran towards his goals, and began working once more whereas he was nonetheless sporting a sling. In October 2006, he ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., and completed in simply over three hours. Subsequent, he returned to Florida for the Miami Marathonand stated that whereas working among the many high 20, he realized that he’d come full circle: “I used to be actually working previous the golf equipment I used to occasion in; I used to be smoking a pack a day not that way back.” He completed the race in 2:49 with a brand new drive for the game. He was nonetheless engaged on himself in restoration, and he was capable of see the outcomes of the metamorphosis he was experiencing.
Working Immersion
Though he continued dwelling in Ithaca and coaching for highway marathons, Diboun began spending extra time working trails, and — intrigued by the journey and thriller of ultras — determined he needed to attempt a 50-kilometer race. “I used to be coaching for my second Boston Marathon on the time,” he stated, and recalled pondering, “I can’t wait till this Boston Marathon is over so I can attempt certainly one of these ultras.” In 2007, he ran the Finger Lakes 50k and had an ideal day. “I discovered myself in first place the entire time.” When he completed, he stated he was advised, “You broke so-and-so’s report! He’s a badass. Now you’re a badass!” Diboun stated, “Extra importantly, I simply liked the entire neighborhood of ultras. I nonetheless do, that’s why I nonetheless do it at the moment.”
For Diboun, one factor led to a different, and 50k turned 50 miles after which 100 miles. “I ran my first 100 in 2008 for my thirtieth birthday,” he shared. It was a race within the Finger Lakes area close to Ithaca that’s now known as Virgil Crest 100 Mileand he gained that one, too. “I used to be a giant fish in a small pond,” Diboun stated with a chuckle. That very same yr, he was named the Western New York Extremely Runner of the 12 months. In 2009, drawn partly by the paths of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, he moved to Portland, Oregon.
Diboun comes by means of an support station on the 2012 Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
By that point, Diboun was a sponsored runner and ending his diploma in train science. “The timing was excellent for each me and my working profession, and the game of ultrarunning. The guide ‘Born to Run’ had simply come out, and folks had been reaching out to me about teaching,” he stated. Diboun had been writing his personal coaching plans and had realized about coaching in his train science program, so it appeared like a pure development to start teaching ultrarunners.
In the meantime, he continued coaching, racing, and honing his craft — and touring the world to compete in high-profile races, together with the 2015 Path World Championships in France, the place he raced the 52-mile occasion with Workforce USA, which earned a silver medal within the males’s crew competitors. Diboun stated he felt that his working profession was on a easy trajectory: “It was nearly like yearly acquired higher than the final.” He raced the Western States 100 in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2019, and earned a top-10 end in 2013. “Western States holds a particular place in my coronary heart. My first one was just a little bittersweet, although,” he shared. Though he was having an ideal day, he began to falter close to the top. Arriving on the observe in eleventh place, he acquired handed within the remaining yards and completed twelfth. “It motivated me a lot!” he stated. Desirous to attempt once more in 2013, Diboun flew to Alabama to compete within the Pinhoti 100 Milethe place he secured an computerized entry to Western States by putting third. The 2013 Western States was the second hottest yr within the occasion’s historical past on the time, and at mile 80, Diboun was in tenth place. With the earlier yr nonetheless contemporary in his thoughts, he thought, “I’m not letting that occur once more,” and the reminiscence motivated him all the best way to the observe. As he closed in, he acquired phrase of one other runner simply forward of him, and he pushed to reel him in and ended up in ninth place.
Diboun working throughout the 2012 Western States 100. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Working Full Circle
Alongside all his particular person working successes, for Diboun, it at all times comes again to his journey by means of restoration and the communities he’s constructed. By way of his enterprise, Wy’east Wolfpack, he helps folks prepare for races or journey journeys, runs youth and company wellness applications, and leads the working arm of The Restoration Health club, a health health club in Portland for folks recovering from substance abuse or psychological well being problems. Providing each private teaching and group health providers, Diboun has constructed a life round serving to folks uncover a love for motion and the outside.
“A giant a part of restoration is giving it away,” Diboun explains. To this finish, he’s embarking on an annual fundraiser known as Transfer By way of Darkness on the evening of December 13, 2025. Beginning at sundown on one of many longest nights of the yr, Diboun will run by means of the darkness and solely cease at dawn the subsequent morning. Individuals are invited to help the occasion by donating per mile, popping out to affix the run, or collaborating nonetheless they need. In response to Diboun, “Individuals be part of in the course of the evening and produce vitality drinks or have a dance occasion. Some run a section, and others run in solidarity from different components of the nation.” Diboun stated working by means of the evening is symbolic: “You simply don’t know when persons are going into these darkish locations … All of us undergo darkish locations in our lives, and also you simply must hold shifting towards the sunshine.” Transfer By way of Darkness is partnered with the Alano Membership of Portland, a non-profit group that helps people recovering from addictive problems.
Diboun continues to provide again to his neighborhood, together with his fundraiser, Transfer By way of Darkness. Picture courtesy of Yassine Diboun.
Many people transfer by means of the world with out absolutely understanding the affect we have now on these round us. Each occasionally, nonetheless, we catch a glimpse of our affect — and generally, this comes as a present once we want it most. Maybe, as Diboun does, by sharing a chunk of ourselves, extra of us may help one another come full circle.
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