In Traverse City, Michigan—and on endurance courses across the world—Jennifer Symons has found her path to mental wellness through the steady rhythm of running.
As a therapist managing the crisis team at Munson Medical Center’s emergency department, Jennifer spends her days helping others navigate their mental health challenges. But it’s when her feet hit the pavement that she finds her own stride; it turns out that some of the best therapy comes one step at a time.
Calm Through Cadence
Jennifer has lived with anxiety and OCD since childhood, though she didn’t always have the framework to understand what she was experiencing. “I canceled plans all the time. I never wanted to go out. I was just so anxious without realizing that it was anxiety,” she recalls. “So it was a relief as an adult to actually understand ‘this is what’s going on.’”
That understanding has been crucial to Jennifer’s anxiety management strategy, which has come to center around running. “If I’m having a bad mental health day, I never regret running. It always helps,” she says. “It doesn’t change anything that’s actually going on with my life, but it makes it feel more manageable.”
While her running journey began when she was 12, it wasn’t until she was training for her first marathon in 2012 that she became hooked. “I discovered that the longer I’m out there, the better I feel,” Jennifer explains. “I work through a lot of things on those long runs.”
That processing time has certainly added up: she’s now completed 14 marathons, and she’s still just getting started.
Becoming Empowered
As both a mental health professional and someone who manages her own mental health challenges, Jennifer understands the vital role of consistent movement in maintaining emotional well-being. “If I can get through a long, hard run that I choose to do, I can get through other hard things in life that I have less control over,” she explains. “And then the empowering component of overcoming something really difficult, like a 20 mile run in like really cold snowy weather—you feel like you can accomplish anything after you do something like that.”
Utilizing running as a means to channel inner strength has proved invaluable during what Jennifer describes as one of her most challenging years. Following a divorce and the sudden loss of her father—precipitating episodic depression and her first encounter with anhedonia—running became more than just exercise: it was a lifeline. “Being able to run throughout all of that has been life-changing,” she reflects. “I was unsure how to handle these new symptoms but I kept running as I navigated them.”
“It’s been the one constant that has carried me through some really dark times.”
Finding Community
In 2016, while listening to the Michigan Runner Girl podcast, Jennifer heard an episode featuring Still I Run founder, Sasha Wolff. “I was like, oh my God, there’s a group in Michigan that runs for mental health awareness. These are my people,” she remembers. “I was just floored that those two things came together like that and there were other people like me out there.” Excitement for the organization turned into action—she’s been an ambassador ever since.
The Still I Run community is now a crucial element of Jennifer’s support system. Through social media and team events, she has met countless others who share similar struggles and triumphs. “I’ve connected with so many people about mental health and running that I would have never met otherwise. People check in on you and you check in on them—there’s a strong community there.”
For many races, those connections become even more tangible for Jennifer. Prior to events with Team Still I Run members, the team will gather for a shakeout run to prepare for the race together. “You get to meet other team members in real life and you spend time with them and you learn their stories and they’re so inspiring,” she fondly recalls. “It really hypes you up for the race the next day.”
Keeping Pace Abroad
This past September, Jennifer took on a new kind of challenge with Team Still I Run: her first international race at the 2024 Berlin Marathon. The experience came with a unique set of challenges. “I was out there traveling alone and figuring out the logistics, which is stressful, especially before such a long race,” she remembers. “It was anxiety provoking, but I have had amazing experiences running for this organization, so it was cool to overcome that while raising awareness and testing my own courage.”
As one of the largest marathons in the world, the event presented a particularly intense environment for Jennifer, who acknowledged her sensitivity to crowded situations. “I get overstimulated easily in large crowds and there were 60,000 runners. I mean, you're standing shoulder to shoulder with people.” However, she found her rhythm as the race progressed: “A few miles in, when you space out and you just get to enjoy the experience…it was awesome.”
Growing Stronger, Mile by Mile
Looking ahead, Jennifer continues to push her boundaries. After an injury several years ago led her to try swimming, she started to add triathlons to her repertoire, a testament to her ability to turn setbacks into opportunities for growth. Later this year, she will be competing in her first full Iron Man race in Arizona.
She feels strongly that she isn’t alone in this kind of resilience; she sees it in many of the people she treats in her work and meets through running.
“People have been through so much and they just persevere. You know the expression ‘you don’t know what someone’s been through or what they’re going through’? The way people can come back from some of these adversities they face, and then they start running, and then they’re running their first marathon. It’s so incredible.”
Her advice to anyone wanting to try running for their own mental health: “Don’t overthink it. Walk when you need to, run when you want, just keep moving forward.”
