As a runner for most of my adult life, the marathon has always been the mecca of all running challenges. As someone who loves a challenge I can’t shake it off my mental to-do list.
The London Marathon happened on the 23rd of April. I was sitting in my house in London with a cup of coffee watching as hundreds of thousands pass the landmarks of London during the most physically gruelling hours of their life.
I think many people would have been relieved that, like me, they were only experiencing the marathon from the comforts of their front room. And rightly so. What would motivate someone to run for over two hours without stopping?
This is what the BBC’s new documentary ‘Mind Over Marathon’ sheds light on. The documentary featured ten people who had lived with different, crippling mental illnesses for years – and mostly in silence.
Each individual suffered a different mental illness, ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder after a car accident, or the harrowing trauma of unexpectedly losing your one-year-old child and then a husband to suicide. Depression, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder were also experienced and, throughout the programme, real people illustrated what it was like to live a life of torture in your own mind.
The term “mental illness” is shown in the documentary to cover a limitless panoply of suffering. With the help of nutritionists, running coaches and physiotherapists, the group were offered the opportunity to run the marathon as exercise has been shown to give structure, routine, friendship networks and endorphins to somewhat relieve their lives from the burdens of their thoughts.
The group were supported by the royals. William, Kate and Harry appeared on the programme to express their respect and admiration for the work they were doing. William, particularly, offered candid advice about his own experiences with losing his mother at a young age, stressing how important it is to talk about what is going on in people’s heads.
At the end of the two-part documentary, when the group of uninjured and determined individuals crossed the finish line, I felt victorious and overwhelmed. The tears were in full flow as I fully grasped how excruciating mental illness can be – when the mundane struggles of life, even getting out of bed, become a monstrous task. Such was the case with Steve, who suffered from PTSD and anxiety, as he visibly shook when preparing to meet the group at the training centre.
With this documentary, the public could share the victory of ten incredible individuals fighting a battle to reduce the stigma against mental health. The varied group formed a team; they were ordinary but far from typical. The documentary stressed how mental illness can indeed happen to anyone, however intelligent of high functioning, and it is not a triumph to suffer in silence.
It doesn’t make you look weak to seek out ways to fight the demons of your mind. Mind over Marathon offered the reassurance that it is easy to ease the burden of someone who is suffering, simply through listening and trying to understand. Empathy, lack of presumption and stability may provide someone with that small bit of support that they need to try and heal.