Left Foot, Right Foot, Repeat: Stephanie Williams’ Road to Her 10th Marathon

For Stephanie Williams, running has never been only about finish lines, race times, or medals. It has been something she can come back to when life feels heavy—a steady companion alongside therapy and the other tools she uses to care for her mental health.

This fall, Stephanie will line up for the Chicago Marathon with Team Still I Run. It will be her fourth time running Chicago, but this one carries a little more weight: Chicago will be Stephanie’s 10th marathon, and she knew she wanted that milestone to stand for something.

After several years as a Still I Run Ambassador, choosing to run her 10th marathon with Team Still I Run felt like a way to bring together the pieces of her story that have mattered most: running, mental health, vulnerability, and the hope that sharing what she has experienced might make someone else feel a little less alone.

One Run at a Time

Stephanie has been an athlete for most of her life, but in her early twenties, she found herself in one of the hardest periods she had ever experienced. She was living with severe depression and suicidal thoughts while also carrying the weight of trauma from earlier in her life.

Her now-husband, whom she was engaged to at the time, recognized how badly she was struggling and encouraged her to get help. Stephanie had been in therapy as a teenager and into college, and she returned to it more regularly in her mid-twenties. Still, progress felt painfully slow.

Her therapist at the time talked with her about finding the things that could “charge her batteries”—small things that might give her enough energy to keep moving forward. Because Stephanie had always been active, he suggested setting a physical goal.

So, in 2008, while in the depths of depression, Stephanie decided she was going to train for a marathon.

She documented the experience through a private, invite-only blog because what she was going through felt deeply personal. Training gave her something concrete to hold onto. There was another run on the calendar, another day to get outside, another small promise she could keep to herself.

“If I could just get outside for that one run, that was one day longer that I was here and hanging in there,” she remembers.

Stephanie eventually made it to the start line of a marathon in Maine and finished the race. Looking back, she can see how closely that season of her life reflects a phrase she would encounter years later through Still I Run: Forward is a Pace.

She didn’t have those words in 2008. She just knew she could do the run in front of her. Then the next one. Then the next.

Her “Sweaty Sidekick” to Therapy

That first marathon didn’t make Stephanie’s mental health struggles disappear, and she doesn’t talk about running as if it did. Instead, running became one part of the larger way she cares for herself.

She calls it her “sweaty sidekick” to therapy and the other tools she has used to support her mental health.

During depressive episodes, getting started is often the hardest part. Stephanie has learned to make the goal smaller: put on her shoes, step outside and go a mile. Some days, that really is all she can do.

But sometimes, that mile is enough to shift something.

“I’m outside in the fresh air, with the birds, the sun’s on me, and there’s something that happens that makes me feel just a little bit better,” she says. “The amazing thing is that when you’re in the depths of a depressive episode or an anxiety episode, I just go and I come back to myself and everything is just calm.”

Feeling a little better matters. Running may lift her mood enough that she can come home and make a healthy meal, do the laundry, call a friend or take whatever next step she needs that day. It isn’t about running making everything okay. Sometimes, it simply helps her get from where she is to a place where the next thing feels possible.

That idea is also central to Still I Run’s approach to movement: running is a supportive tool for mental health and well-being, not a measure of performance or worth. “Forward is a Pace” recognizes that starting, restarting, slowing down and continuing all count.

Returning to Chicago

Since that first marathon in Maine, Stephanie has kept running. She has completed eight more marathons, including several World Marathon Majors, and Chicago has become a race she feels especially connected to.

She has run the Chicago Marathon three times before, and each race reflects a different chapter in her mental health journey.

When she ran Chicago in 2019, she finished the race and only recognized afterward just how depressed she had been at the time. When she returned in 2021, things felt different. She remembers realizing, “Wow, I’m not as depressed.” She was dealing with disordered eating during that period, but the race was also her first marathon after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person racing. Being back in that environment brought her a lot of joy.

As her 10th marathon approached, Stephanie knew she wanted to be intentional about what the milestone represented. This time, she wasn’t interested in making the race primarily about a finishing time.

She wanted it to have purpose.

Stephanie considered running Big Sur with Team Still I Run, but something about it didn’t quite click. Then she saw a post saying Team Still I Run still had bibs available for Chicago.

The decision was almost immediate.

“Chicago just has this draw to me. I love this race,” Stephanie says. “I’ve had every possible experience in Chicago; this is the one. My 10th marathon has to be Chicago, and I HAVE to fundraise for Still I Run.”

For Stephanie, returning to a city and a race she already loves while raising money for a mission so closely tied to her own life makes marathon number 10 feel exactly as meaningful as she hoped it would.

Team Still I Run brings together endurance events, fundraising and personal storytelling, giving runners the opportunity to advocate for mental well-being while raising funds to support Still I Run’s work. For Stephanie, those pieces fit naturally together.

Finding Still I Run—and Sharing Her Story Again

Before Stephanie became an ambassador herself, she discovered Still I Run through another ambassador she followed on Instagram. She remembers being struck by how openly this woman talked about her mental health and postpartum depression.

The honesty stayed with her.

When applications opened for the Still I Run Ambassador Program, Stephanie went back and forth about applying. Joining would mean talking publicly about parts of her own life that she had once only felt comfortable sharing through a private blog.

That vulnerability wasn’t easy.

Over time, though, Stephanie has been surprised by the response she receives when she talks openly about what she has experienced. Instead of pushing people away, those conversations have often created connection. She has realized how many people around her are struggling themselves or love someone who is.

Talking about her mental health has also become part of how Stephanie processes her own experiences. She doesn’t always want to talk about what she’s going through, and sometimes it takes time before she is ready. Running can help her get there. The physical act of moving forward gives her enough space to come back to herself, process what she is feeling and eventually put words to it.

It’s part of why being an ambassador matters so much to her. She remembers what it felt like to see someone else share openly about the scary, complicated parts of mental health. If her own honesty can help another person feel safe enough to speak up, reach out or get the support they need, she wants to keep telling her story.

That willingness to share lived experience is part of what makes the Still I Run community what it is: a place where people can show up with different stories and paces while finding connection through movement.

Left Foot, Right Foot, Repeat

After nine marathons, countless training miles and nearly two decades of using running as one tool to care for her mental health, Stephanie’s advice to someone who is just getting started is refreshingly simple:

“Left foot, right foot, repeat. That’s all it is.”

Running can look intimidating from the outside, especially when social media fills our feeds with race results, mileage totals, pace charts and training plans. Stephanie wants people who are turning to movement for their mental health to know that none of those things have to define what running looks like for them.

“For those of us who are doing this for our mental health, it’s just left foot, right foot, repeat.”

Walk if you need to. Run when you can. Combine the two. Go one mile. Get outside and see what happens.

For Stephanie, moving forward has always been both literal and metaphorical. Long before she knew Still I Run existed, she was living out the idea behind Forward is a Pace. During one of the darkest periods of her life, she kept putting another run on the calendar and giving herself another reason to show up.

Years later, she’ll return to Chicago for marathon number 10 with an entire Still I Run community behind her.

The race will be another finish line. But Stephanie’s story has never really been about the finish line.

It’s about the next step.