Our Collective Stories

For most of her life, Conoshia Odum never thought of herself as a runner. Running wasn’t something she grew up doing. It wasn’t a sport she had always loved or a goal she had been working toward. In fact, when running first entered her life in a meaningful way, she wasn’t looking for it at all. She was simply trying to feel like herself again.

If you've ever searched for ways to manage anxiety or depression, you may have come across advice to start running. While research continues to show that running can support mental health, knowing how to begin is often much harder than knowing you should. When you're already struggling with low energy, anxious thoughts, or a lack of motivation, figuring out where to start can feel overwhelming.

Lain didn't become a runner overnight. He started by walking up and down his street for about an hour each day. Eventually, those walks turned into slow jogs. Then came the occasional mile on the treadmill. Before long, he found himself running outside.

When Gigi Lannon first started thinking about studying abroad, she already had one goal in mind. She wanted to run a marathon. Not just any marathon, either. She wanted to spend a semester somewhere unforgettable and experience the city in the most meaningful way she could: by training for and running a marathon there. For Gigi, that destination became Sydney, Australia.

Sometimes the finish line isn't the biggest victory. Sometimes it's simply finding a reason to keep moving forward. For Still I Run Ambassador Tyler Wilke, running began as a challenge. Along the way, it became something much more: a way to process grief, clear his mind, and prove to himself that he was capable of more than he ever imagined.