Rising from the deeply positive impact that sport can have on our mental health, we bring you a documentary project that delves deeper into understand why so many people who struggle with mental health gravitate towards endurance based events.
Set over the course of a 5 day 250km multi stage event in Wales we speak to real people who share their real thoughts and ultimately address very real consequences.
www.itswhywerun.com
@itswhywerun (insta)

This video comes with a TRIGGER WARNING that we address mental health, depression and suicide.
Ultimately we hope that you are able to reflect on your own journey, see yourself in someone else's words and speak out if you are struggling. We hope this helps people find the strength to have a conversation with a friend or college who may just find it easier to ask you if you want to go for a run/ride rather than openly declaring their struggle.

TRIGGER WARNING.
In 2019 a close friend of mine reached out and asked me if i was free the following week to go for a run. He had been struggling but the conversation we had was about 'training hard', 'smashing races' and ultimately about getting back into the pain cave while things were tough. We had arranged to meet outside his office Monday lunch time to run, laugh and revel in how stupid we were when it came to signing up to hard events.
We never got that opportunity to go for that run after Jules couldn't see a life for himself after that weekend.
Jules had run MDS, won ultra races and one of my fondest memories will always be flying to Norway to race the original Tromso Sky Race. Over 100 runners took part in a marathon with a 10hr cut off time. The course was so physically demanding that only 10 people completed the full distance of the race in the time allowed, Jules and I coming in 9th and 10th. Jules and i laughed, as we stood adjacent to a ridge line in Norway's Arctic Circle, looking at the peak off into the distance that we would have to eventually reach and then return from. This is the same race that Professional athlete Hilliary Allen almost died on in a near fatal fall a few years later. My friend was indestructible.

There is a simple goal here If we can help one person see themselves in the worlds of our protagonists then perhaps they might be more comfortable asking for help.

WhyWeRun:
This concept was born by accident, when there was a need to raise money and awareness for those that needed it. It just so happened that part of the challenge the founder, Lewis, had set himself was to run five multistage ultramarathons in 2022 and the last of them was cancelled.

WhyWeRun is a 250km multistage ultramarathon, a collective effort absent of time based competition, an opportunity for people to come together, find out what they are capable of and to fight for a purpose that is much great than ourselves. Each year the runners aim to raise a minimum of £500 each for mental health charity, Bigmoose.