Mental Health Toolkit

Mental Health Toolkit

Jody Davis, RN, LISW-S

 At the 2023 MIT kick off just a few weeks ago, on a freezing cold Saturday morning, we all shuffled outside and into our typical pace groups to hear the announcements before that week’s run.  Hannah was excitedly asking us questions like “Who’s at MIT for the first time? Who is training for Cap City? Who’s training for the Flying Pig? Who is here getting ready for Boston?” 

I was amongst my pace group buddies from last season, and when Hannah asked about Boston, I sneered “I will never run Boston.”  Right next to me Steve Smith, one of our MIT coaches, said to me “not with that attitude you won’t.”  And then we both laughed our heads off!

While we laughed because we are in the 11:30 pace group and would never run fast enough to qualify for Boston, this idea of writing off future possibilities because of our own attitudes is important.

The second half of 2022 was the best running season in my whole adult life.  I got to go out west to this “dream festival” called the Grand Circle Trailfest and I ran well at the Nationwide Children's half marathon.  I also completed my first Ultramarathon, the Bigfoot 50K, which laid total waste to my body, barely avoiding a DNF.

Just the year before, 2021, I was in a lot of pain.  My left knee hurt just walking around.  An x-ray of my left knee resulted in a diagnosis of moderate to severe left knee Osteoarthritis.  The doctor suggested maybe my distance running days were over.  I took a few months off, but remained worried that this may be “game over” for me.

After I mentioned this diagnosis to a few running & walking friends who are more senior than me, looking for sympathy.  What I got instead was, “are you going to let that stop you? Is that really the end of your story?” 

Instead of doom and gloom, I started to have some hope for the future. And I started to run again with MIT, something I hadn’t done on a regular basis since a FrontRunner group maybe 10 years earlier.  I began 2022 with short runs, going slow, and looking for any signs my knee would give me trouble.

It did not!  Which goes back to the idea of positive attitude when it comes to running & walking.  The importance of developing a mental health toolkit of sorts.  What is in the toolkit?  For one, it includes “highs and lows” runners & walkers can fall back on when our bodies or our will to go on are failing us.  How we deal with hitting the wall, or the pain cave.

In recent years, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has opened up about his mental health struggles. If someone with 28 Olympic medals, including 23 Gold Medals has struggled with depression and anxiety, then maybe a few highs and lows for walkers and runners are to be expected.

Michael has stated that he wouldn’t have dared to talk about his mental health while he was competing, fearing it would be seen as a sign of weakness.  But now he notices that if you go to a training room or weight room for any college or pro team, they’re going to have anything and everything they possibly need for physical fitness.  If that’s the case, why don’t we have another section that’s devoted to mental health?

When I look around the Fleet Feet stores, I see everything we need for physical fitness, clothes, shoes, nutrition, watches, headlamps, trails and routes, massagers, foam rollers etc.  They even have Fit for Life Physical Therapy in the stores!  But what I don’t see are any mental health resources.

Well, maybe these toolkits are not on a sales rack.  Maybe they are all around us.

Maybe each MIT participant and coach has their own stories and struggles, plus their own ways of coping?  Maybe dealing with the feelings of inadequacy on group runs, or how to come back from a race dropout or injury, is a lot harder to deal with than swapping for a new pair of shoes?

Maybe we’re afraid of opening that pandora’s box, because we might now have to try and “fix it?”  Or, maybe if we look at mental health issues across MIT, it seems outside of our control.  It scares us.  We can tell ourselves that we don’t need any mental health support. Just like Michael Phelps did while competing.  

Well, we can all use some support occasionally.  We want to put these mental health toolkits in your hands, so Jeff, Hannah, Sean and others in MIT leadership are excited to start having mental health support topics be included biweekly in the MIT,  How cool is that?

I know that for my 2023 goals, getting by on whatever coping skills I have on the longer runs is not going to cut it. I will be looking for newsletter insights into successful marathon and ultramarathon tips and tricks from amazing runners and walkers I admire for their abilities.

Be on the lookout for more mental well-being topics in upcoming newsletters. See you out on the roads!