Each Sunday morning, runners hit the road, chasing exercise, while four-legged partners chase something much bigger, "Carolina Impact"'s Chris Clark visits a local run club where every leash leads somewhere different.

(dogs barking) - [Chris] On Sunday mornings on Toomey Avenue, there are runners, there are walkers, and then there are the ones who haven't decided yet.

- You got the squished face on the camera.

- What's great about Zoomie Toomey is you can be either.

- [Chris] Around here, finding your pace starts with finding the right partner.

Brianna found one who occasionally has other priorities.

- This is Harry Pawter.

He's been a great run-walk companion.

He likes to stop off and get kisses every once in a while.

- [Chris] Some people fit Zoomie Toomey into their Sunday.

Tenley Nystrom rearranged hers.

- I was just in Europe for the last week and I was supposed to come home today, but I actually changed my flight and came home yesterday because this is the reopening of Zoomie Toomey.

You ready to run?

- [Chris] But here's what you may not see.

(dog barks) Back inside, this can be the same dog.

- They know immediately they're gonna go out for a walk.

(dog whining) - [Chris] Matthew Scott works at the shelter and he's watched what happens before a walk and after.

- They're so more relaxed.

They're not as stressed out.

(dog panting) - [Chris] The difference isn't just something they can see.

It's something they can use.

- Every time we run them, we're learning about them.

We get to create notes which end up going on their profiles.

- Do they keep the pace?

Are they gonna be good with a runner or are they gonna be more of a couch potato?

- [Chris] Every trip outside fills in another blank, sometimes a pretty unexpected one.

- We believe he may be bilingual.

He responds to Spanish commands.

- [Chris] Blue, it turns out, speaks a second language, and these walks can tell a second story too, because not everyone holding a leash came here just for the dog.

- Hanging out with these dogs, getting to see them be happy, and, you know, you're getting them a good home, that's such a good feeling.

- [Chris] Oscar Barriga, this was his first Sunday here, but a few strides in, something about it felt painfully familiar.

- I just recently put my dog down two weeks ago and I used to always love taking him out to run.

So just having the opportunity to take another dog out, let 'em be free.

- [Chris] Oscar came here for the first time.

These days, he has plenty of company, but Holly Hayes remembers when there wasn't a line at all.

- [Holly] It started out very small.

- There's five people here and they're all running the dogs.

- We had a couple of internet gurus who put it out there on Instagram and TikTok and it turned into a lot of people.

- [Chris] But before all this became a crowd, it was just Ricky Highsmith and a marathon to train for.

- I would pull one dog at a time.

My guy Phoenix hasn't been out in two days.

He is pumped.

I would run them about two miles.

Seven-minute mile.

This boy has got to be more careful!

Spin 'em around, run 'em inside, give them their Kong, their water, and then another one.

- [Chris] One dog, then another, until one named Cooper gave Ricky an idea bigger than the next two miles.

- Brought him out here and it just clicked to me.

I was like, "We're going to start a run club, Cooper."

Come on, my boy.

Let's go clock a mile or so.

And I just started running and never stopped.

(dog panting) - [Chris] That was 2024.

What started with Cooper kept on growing.

- I thank you guys for coming out.

If this is your first time, please do return and have a great time.

- [Chris] So did Ricky's hope that one particular person would come see what it had become.

- My son's name is Zamar Highsmith.

He was a very compassionate kid.

♪ Remember when I used to take your baths ♪ ♪ When you was like four and five and a half ♪ Whether it was siblings, his friends, little brothers, especially animals, you know, he tried to keep that part away, but just as much as love as I have for these dogs, my son did as well.

- [Chris] He never got the chance.

About a year ago, Ricky's son died by suicide, and suddenly the man who spent every Sunday getting dogs outside struggled to get himself out.

- I try to be as strong as possible and push forward, but it's not the same as when it started.

Everything that I've built here, it just, it felt like nothing once my son wasn't here.

(traffic distantly rumbling) - [Chris] There are Sundays he still doesn't want to come, Sundays when a run club feels very small compared to what he's lost.

- I never wanted to let them down.

I always show up, but there are many, many Sundays where I just... I don't want it.

- [Chris] Maybe that's the part nobody standing in this line can see.

Ricky thought he was showing up for them.

- There are quite a few volunteers that were the backbone of everything that I was doing, who were everything when it came to keeping me afloat without knowing they were keeping me afloat.

- [Chris] And maybe that's why this place works.

A dog comes out of a kennel (dog barks) and somebody learns who they really are.

A person comes carrying stress or loneliness or loss.

(group chuckles) - Don't eat that.

- [Chris] And gets something back too.

- You see them and they are either terrified or shaking or they could be barking really loud, and then you take them out and they just want to be loved.

It's just like a whole other dog once you take them out.

- [Chris] Every once in a while, one of those dogs reveals something in the person holding the leash too.

Taylor knows one of her walks started with a dog named Banks.

- I was like, "Oh, there's just something about his eyes."

He has these beautiful, brown, like, inviting eyes.

And I was like, "Okay, I want to take you on a walk."

Took him on a walk.

I fell in love.

- [Chris] That walk ended.

Banks never came back to the shelter.

He went home with Taylor.

Ricky started this trying to get shelter dogs out for a run.

What he couldn't have known was how much he'd one day need them to get him out too.

- I don't really know where I would have went if I would have never found these dogs, found the shelter.

Getting these guys the homes that they need in time, that's a little more important to me.

- [Chris] Every Sunday, the gate opens.

The dogs head for the door.

One dog, one mile, one Sunday at a time.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Chris Clark.