Eminem's running craze

Eminem has kicked another addiction, says Noah Callahan-Bever in Complex.com. When he stopped abusing Vicodin and other prescription drugs 18 months ago, he took up running. “I was running literally 17 miles a day,” says the 37-year-old rapper. “Sometimes 19. I felt like I was addicted to running, like I was trapped in prison, because it was like, ‘Ah, f--k, I gotta go running again.’” The compulsion, he says, was not unrelated to his drug addiction. “My brain just doesn’t know when to shut off. When I do something, I have to do it all the way.” The running, he thought, would melt the fat off the bloated, shapeless body he developed while hooked on drugs. But Eminem realized he’d gone too far—and cut way back on his miles—when he saw an episode of Obsessed on A&E. “This dude would get up in the morning and go to the gym, then again at lunch, then again after work. But on his way home he’d pass by another gym, and he’d have to go in that gym and do like 15 reps of everything, too! He couldn’t pass by a gym without stopping in it. I saw that and was like, ‘I really got a problem—I’m this guy.’”