How the World’s Most Unserious Race Helped Me Start to Heal From a Near-Death Experience

Content material warning: This story incorporates references to gun violence, which can be upsetting or triggering for some readers.

My sense of mortality grew to become traumatically clear after experiencing an energetic shooter incident at a restaurant with my associates in August 2024. In consequence, I had a tricky time trusting the world round me. I used to be hypervigilant and suspicious of strangers, unable to sit down out in public except I used to be going through the door. After a number of periods of EMDR with my therapist, I used to be in a position to shake off many of the disgrace, guilt, and concern. Nevertheless it was a competition known as Runningman that empowered me to actually let go as soon as and for all.

If you happen to haven’t heard of it, Runningman is a three-day wellness competition and race in Rome, Georgia. As a health journalist and (one-time) marathoner, I acquired an invite to attend the second annual occasion. I signed as much as run a half marathon and started my coaching instantly. Then, the capturing occurred.“I spent three days in mattress—crying, rolling round, ignoring all tasks. I thought-about backing out of Runningman, however my associates satisfied me to not. “You want this,” they mentioned. They have been proper.

When eager about one thing continuous, we regularly say it’s “enjoying on a loop.” That’s what the capturing trauma was like for me. Sports activities therapist Andrea Estrada, LPC, explains that trauma impacts how we predict, really feel, and act. Signs can manifest bodily: shaking, shortness of breath, complications, and insomnia. They may even be psychological struggles, like self-blame and avoiding triggers as an alternative of working via them.

Make no mistake: That’s precisely what was taking place to me. I couldn’t sleep. I barely ate. I didn’t wish to speak to anybody. My physique was tense. I didn’t belief that the world was a very good place. So, yeah, my associates have been proper. I wanted Runningman; I wanted to be in the course of nowhere, tenting with 1,000 strangers who would show that I used to be, certainly, secure and will, the truth is, belief humanity.

Along with a 4,200-square-foot sauna, yoga lessons, guided meditations, sound baths, and deep stretches—which all boast well being advantages in their very own proper—Runningman presents psychological well being workshops. Unequivocally, this factors to how intertwined sport and psychological well being have turn into. (Particular because of elite athletes like Serena Williams, Simone Biles, and Naomi Osaka for paving that path.)

I wanted to be in the course of nowhere, tenting with 1,000 strangers who would show that I used to be, certainly, secure and will, the truth is, belief humanity.

I used to be initially anxious about tenting in the course of nowhere with strangers for 3 days. However operating into somebody I knew made me really feel extra comfy, as did making associates alongside the best way. Even so, I noticed folks—at first nervous after which extra relaxed. Everybody was pleased, smiling at one another and placing up conversations about how a lot we beloved operating. That sense of group helped me begin to chip away on the last remnants of my trauma. Although I had bother sleeping via the night time, that was the primary night time I didn’t have bother falling asleep.

The following day, on a mile-long loop, I tackled 13.1 miles of “the world’s most unserious race.” By the third lap, this felt symbolic—like I used to be destroying the tracks on which my trauma replayed, one lap at a time. After mile seven, I stepped off the course, which the “unserious” race encourages, and sat in on a psychological well being and operating workshop hosted by endurance athlete and psychological well being advocate Raymond Braun.

“I started my train journey throughout the context of my publicity remedy pyramid for OCD restoration,” Braun says. “My remedy program targeted on the enjoyment, energy, and self-confidence that may be constructed via coaching, together with the connection between psychological and bodily well being, and all of the physiological advantages of conscious motion.”

Impressed by Braun’s trajectory, I mirrored on how motion helps folks going through their very own struggles—notably my latest near-death expertise. His phrases reassured me that it was okay to really feel this fashion, that there was nothing “flawed” with me or my response to the capturing, and that operating was my secure area.

After Braun’s workshop, I bought again on the course to complete the half marathon. After we alternate emails a couple of months after the competition, Braun tells me sport has helped him cope not simply with OCD, but additionally with discovering out his greatest good friend, Maya, had stage 4 most cancers.

“On the finish of 2021, when Maya made the excruciatingly painful choice to transition to hospice care, I promised her that I used to be going to finish a full-distance Ironman triathlon. For each of us,” Braun tells me. “Coaching for Ironman Arizona, and subsequent endurance challenges, helped me course of grief and really feel related to Maya via our shared purpose.”

It is a feeling my total being can relate to. Consider it or not, I had a “come clear” second over the last two miles of the race—because the humidity in Georgia changed into a straight-up downpour. I felt cleansed on a religious degree and lastly cried out of pleasure as an alternative of grief. After I share this with Estrada, she says most of us really feel “high-energy, nice emotions” once we end an occasion. These embody pleasure, achievement, empowerment, belief, or happiness.

I handled the Runningman race the identical method I handled my trauma: I went at my very own tempo and took breaks after I wanted, for so long as I wanted.

“These are going to meet you and assist that ‘poison’ get out of you,” Estrada says. Consider it like this: The place the “unhealthy” power of a trauma used to exist, the “good” power of a sport accomplishment would now prevail. As I crossed the end line, I felt that shift—like the joy and joie de vivre lastly reclaimed their area.

As an athlete, Braun has his personal conception of this. He thinks of it extra as “burning off” anxiousness, dread, concern, and intrusive ideas. “Sarcastically, whereas my coronary heart price could also be up from train, I truly really feel my physique regulating after I’m shifting. I’m extra current and attuned to my environment and breath.”

Albeit unintentionally, I handled the Runningman race the identical method I handled my trauma: I went at my very own tempo and took breaks after I wanted, for so long as I wanted. The “unseriousness” of this race was essential—obligatory, even—for me to offer myself time and charm. In spite of everything, even when it took me six hours to run a half marathon, I nonetheless ran it. I’ve the medal to show it.

And even when it took me weeks to course of my trauma from the capturing, I nonetheless processed it. I as soon as once more really feel totally secure and consider in humanity. Although therapeutic is a lifelong journey, Runningman proved that even small strides result in main shifts.

If you happen to or somebody is scuffling with psychological well being, name SAMHSA’s Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or go to FindTreatment.gov for assets and remedy choices. If you happen to’re having ideas of harming your self or others, name or textual content 988 for the Suicide & Disaster Lifeline.