There are many people I consider to be brave, but what really stands out to me the most is the bravery in every Run Talk Run (RTR) attendee I’ve ever met. I’ve always quipped, tongue in cheek, that Run Talk Run is a hard sell. Our target audience is essentially those who are struggling with their mental health and/or seeking a way to regain confidence with running.
So the people we’re hoping will attend a RTR are likely low on energy, anxious about meeting new people, and already dealing with A LOT before you even suggest running around with a group of strangers. So to attend a RTR, at any stage in your mental health journey, is to me incredibly incredibly brave!
Not only that, but having spent almost a decade listening to tales of grief, hardship, illness, setbacks, harm and abuse, I can say with certainty that those attending RTRs are next-level brave, actually. More recently of course, I would extend that same thought to the women showing up for What Comes Next, too.
But to acknowledge that Run Talk Runners or women at What Comes Next are brave, I suppose I should pay more attention to the fact that I, too, have been brave.
I was brave to go to the police station, despite being followed and threatened even on my way there that evening. I was brave when I made it through nights where I wasn’t sure I would survive. I was brave when I stood at Monument station, shaking, not knowing if Run Talk Run was the stupidest thing I’d conceived to date.
In all of those moments though, I don’t think I would have said I was being brave. It’s something that comes with hindsight - or from someone else, witnessing your bravery objectively. In the moment, we are just doing what we instinctively know needs to be done.
It makes me wonder if I’ll reflect on this chapter of life and remark that it was “brave”.
I think in some ways, for something to be considered “brave” there needs to be a fear to be overcome. Well, I absolutely have some of those.
I fear that I’ll get things wrong. I fear that What Comes Next might spark retribution from my ex. I fear that there’s always more that needs to be done and that RTR and WCN combined won’t ever be “enough” or scratch the surface.
But there are people in the world right now fearing for their lives, or fearing for their loved ones. That’s a whole level of brave I cannot even begin to imagine.
Humans are, inherently, brave.
