Running For My Mental Health
Written by Alex Hassett
It's funny to me that I run to improve my mental health and yet both running and my mental health are so similar. Some runs, like days, are amazing and you feel like you will never struggle again, others are the toughest of your life and you want to give up then and there. Sometimes it's something as small as a shoelace coming undone that can trip you up as you stride effortlessly through the park and you end up with a bloodied knee and a feeling of embarrassment and shame as you walk home. The same happens with my mental health. It used to be alcohol that was the shoelace that tripped me up and left me shamed and bloodied, sometimes physically, often emotionally. Other days we're tripped up by anything as small as regretting that silly thing we said or just comparing ourselves to everybody else.
I try and tell anyone who's new to running, don't compare your runs with the guy or girl who glides past you as you battle through a gruelling 10 minute jog or the person who posts a picture shouting about their new suspiciously quick 16 minute 5km. The running and mental health comparisons continue. We have no idea what work that effortless glider has put in to improve their running and the hills and mountains they have conquered to earn the right to enjoy it so much. Equally the social media humble brags aren't always what they appear so don't let them allow you to belittle your own achievement of battling through that gruelling 10 minute jog because I can assure you that your 10 minute jog will plant seeds you didn't even know you'd planted.
I talk about these struggles and battles with running because I have and continue to experience these little battles every single run. Just like mental health is something we all work on every single day. But what I love is that every day I have the chance to fight these little battles. For me running is a privilege and something I'm incredibly thankful for. Dare I say it may have saved my life, but it's possible I should accredit that to my wife and 2 dogs lest they read this and remind me of all the runs they've joined me for when I've needed to vent after a long week or the days my wife has supported me along a 12 hour run I selfishly organised but couldn’t have done without her and my closest friends.
Why would anyone want to run for 12 hours you might ask? Having these runs to organise during Covid times were a phenomenal tool keep me sane while the world stopped and allowed me to finally chat with some old demons while running to my home county of Wexford from Dublin or running the entire coast of Dublin from Wicklow to Meath in an attempt to stay as close to the sea as possible, somewhere that’s always brought me a sense of calm and grounding.
And at the risk of flogging the mental health and running comparison to death, these larger events further highlighted the similarities between the two. I may have been the one who needed the runs but I couldn’t do it alone. I needed a team of people around me and when I put it out to the world that I needed help boy did they come. Attempting to run a 130km run is a bit like waking up on a poor mental health day. You feel a weight and a fear and certainly no idea how the end of the day will look, if you can make it at all. But if you’ve reached out and asked for help then people those people come and help you take that first step. I didn’t even think of the run itself until much later as I was distracted by the encouraging chat and positive energy that good people bring when they know you need them. When I had dips during the day a new face would appear and give me the words I needed to hear or even the physical push I didn’t know I needed. And just like a really bad day, there were tears, lots of them. But running is simple. I put one foot in front of the other and allowed people to help me and I finished it.
Just like a crap day when I need help. I reach out and talk to someone. People will show up. They’ll give you the encouraging words you need. Let you have a cry if needed. Then they’ll give you the push you need and you will finish the day. Maybe physically sore or emotionally drained. But the next day you might just feel a little stronger for it and a little proud of yourself like I did. Then you lace up and go again another day and sometimes if we’re really lucky we’re that runner gliding through the park that looks like we have it all figured out.
