World Mental Health Day - 2020

Kings Cross Track Club, Sydney

On World Mental Health Day, Saturday 10th October 2020, Be More You x Love Trails collaborated to host a Virtual Run and Wellbeing Festival.

It had been a tough year for us all due to the pandemic, many races had been cancelled and we have had a lot to contend with both personally and professionally. So, we thought it would be a good idea to create a truly global event that would unite us all.

We asked running communities from around the world to join us virtually, creating their own run on the day and take part in a task that we hoped would unite us in our common humanity.

The task was to give each runner the opportunity to show up authentically for themselves by sharing two words to describe how they are feeling during the run with their crew (i.e. energised and confused).

In the hope this would help normalise the conversation around mental health in the running community.

We were overwhelmed with the response, hundreds of runners from over 50 running crews joined in the run and festival, and here is a list of several of them:

Tide Runners (Hamburg), Parkdale Road Runners (Toronto), Team Trail Paris, Girls Run New York City, The Nine Four (Cape Town), Islands Wolfpack (Bali), Volt Floyd (Istanbul), In Your Shoes (Rome), 091 Run Crew (Skopje), Hard Lines Coffee (UK), Kings Cross Track Club (Sydney). Electric Flight Crew (Los Angeles), Iron Women (London), NBRO (Copenhagen), Midnight Runners (Global), The Corners Run Crew (Toronto), OPAC (Pennsylvania), Prjct Run (Rio), Harbour Runners (Hong Kong), Bridge Runners (New York), Barcelona Flames, Berlin Braves, AM:PM (Melbourne), and Brisbance Social Club.

Here is some of the feedback we received from a few of the crews that participated:

Fierce Run Force and Berlin Braves

Let’s describe it in two words: grateful and connected. 🙌

The World Mental Health Day Run was a really nice initiative by @bemore.you which made us reflect, think about our current situation and offer us the opportunity to give our brains a break from all the thoughts caused by the pandemic. We kind of freed our minds of these during the run.

We as @fiercerunforce teamed up with @berlinbraves to celebrate this day in Berlin with a run and mindful yoga session led by our passionate yogi @alexandra.rahn. It was really nice to come together and experience the most thoughtful run we have ever done. Berlin Braves Co-captain @lena_koro and FRF lead @_ballerinas_world guided both crews through three different tasks to make this run become more of a mental challenge. It was about conscious perception towards our body, our steps, our breath and bringing the teams closer together through authentic conversations about how everyone felt on this particular day. Talks which we continued with coffee after the run and as a warm up for the day's online festival activities.

It also made us realize that we have to use runs more often to reflect on our own mental state and our team member’s. FRF is this kind of space for women to reflect, talk and exchange and to teach women to open up and empower each other by sharing about our inner selves.

Thanks again to @bemore.you @lovetrailfestival @lululemonuk and @shahussain 🙏

We are very much looking forward to more of these initiatives in the near future 🧡

Words written by Steffi Platt, Founder of Fierce Run Force.

Gorky Park Runners, Moscow

Over the past few decades our lives have become so hectic that we can barely slow down and reflect. However, this year has been different – difficult for most of us, but very relieving in terms of shifting our focus on ourselves, our real feelings and the things and people around us. Long months of being in lockdown and joining Be More You taught me how important and valuable our mental health is. 🧠

Saturday, Oct 10, will always be associated for me with a strong uniting power of the running community. The moment I realized that so many crews and individual runners were moving at the same time for the same unique purpose, I couldn’t help smiling the whole day. My two words on that day were ‘gratitude & warmth’: ✨🙏🏾✨

I am sincerely grateful to @bemore.you family for making this huge global movement real. And I am blessed to feel warmth of runners that joined me on this day in Moscow. The warmth opposed to the cold I felt just the day before – I wasn’t sure that bringing up the mental health topic would resonate with Russian people – but I was delighted to see how many people were actually interested in the matter and to hear them speak up openly and honestly. 🌍

It was just a little run, just two words, yet made us feel a part of not just the global running community but of humanity as a whole. 👐🏾

These words were written by Anastasia Kohler of Gorky Park Runners, Moscow. 🇷🇺

Gorky Park Runners, Moscow

The Corners Run Crew

We live in a time where we are able to see hundreds of images a day that remind us to live a more fulfilling and positive life. Quotes are dashed onto billboard ads and inspirational videos inhabit our social media feed. We run, we promise to make notes in a journal, we meditate from time-to-time and when we remember, we check in on friends. It is an honest effort and we all know we are capable of more. There remain times however, when we all need a little organization and sense of purpose to achieve those lofty goals. This past weekend, our crew, along with more than 50 others around the world shared space, a common purpose and two words. My two words were 'grateful and optimistic'. There are several rather personal reasons I chose these words, but I can share that I was, and remain, immensely grateful to our crew as well as Sha, the run leaders & crews, and the rest of the people at: Be More You, Love Trails Festival and Lululemon UK who brought us together to open up and strengthen the discussion around mental wellness. Until we can feel more comfortable weaving in these important discussions into our everyday conversations, people will feel left behind or isolated. Reflecting on the day and re-living the events through the photos and videos I realized that we have a great deal to be optimistic about. There is a movement underfoot and on Saturday it brought smiles, laughter, tears, stories, shared experiences and honesty. I am grateful and optimistic because I know there will be more days like Saturday.

Sincerest thanks again to @bemore.you @lovetrailfestival @lululemonuk and @shahussain

Words written by Colin Strickland, The Corners Run Crew
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.