#DoOneThing - Adreen Hart-Rule

Adreen Hart-Rule from the corporate communications team shares her #DoOneThing in celebration of World Mental Health Day.

For World Mental Health Day, I led a run for my local running club. I chose a route that would get us out of town and into the countryside with some beautiful views. To get to those views, there were some challenging hills. There were some groans and moans when I shared which hills we were going to be working our way up (and I would have been exactly the same if the tables had been turned!) but for me, they were a metaphorical representation of the challenges mental health can present.

Sometimes, you feel that there’s this huge hill, mountain, looming darkness that feels all-consuming when you just stare at it. However, breaking it down and most importantly, sharing and supporting each other, can help you get over it and see the clear skies from the top. We all supported each other up those hills and even though I said we could rest, take it at a slower pace, everyone pushed on through together to the top in one go.

Sadly, the awesome views, which would have included the Wrekin and the Welsh Hills in the distance, were clouded over and there was also some rain thrown in for good measure. However, when we got back, there were smiles and feelings of accomplishment and I couldn’t have been prouder.

Lockdown has been tough for so many of us, myself included. My mental health has suffered and being able to get out of the house, to walk, to run, has been vital. Each January, as a New Year’s resolution, I set myself the challenge of running 100 miles within the month. I decided to repeat this as my #DoOneThing for October and my 10 mile Mental Health Day run played its part towards that total. 

In total, I ran 113 miles during October; my joint top monthly mileage (last achieved in January 2018). As an additional challenge, I also decided to do my furthest run so far which ended-up being 15.35 miles. I did this run by myself, setting out a little earlier than normal so that I would catch some of the dawn, going a steady pace and stopping relatively frequently to take photographs of the scenery. A couple of which are included in this post.

Any University staff who wish to get involved and share their #DoOneThing story should email od@wlv.ac.uk.