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At 61, Arthur McNeil says he runs 30 miles "every day except Sundays."
But he doesn't do it just for exercise. The Portlander, who was homeless for eight years and formerly addicted to drugs, runs to raise money for homeless shelters.
McNeil's story is the focus of a new short documentary titled The Journey of Compassion, shot by Portland filmmaker Ben Grayzel.
Grayzel tells WW he was contacted "out of the blue on Instagram" by a shelter volunteer and friend of McNeil's, Nellie Mullins, with "an amazing story that needed telling."
Grayzel says he was immediately inspired by McNeil.
"He was funny, stoic, and deeply pained all at once," he says. "From that day on I knew there was a story about Arthur and that it related to things I saw around me in Portland: homelessness, rapid development, and a culture of addiction."
In the documentary, McNeil says his mission through long-distance running is to build compassion and bring awareness to issues causing homelessness—namely the high cost of rent.
"We're not giving [people] the opportunity to be stable, have a voice, be accounted for," he says, "If people don't start showing compassion we're all just going to bust hell wide open."
Watch the full six-minute documentary, which was produced by Tearea Turner and Nellie Mullins, here.