In the months after the pandemic, Diana Carolina Rincón did not feel satisfied with her life. Added to the stress and anxiety problems that she had been diagnosed with was the excess weight that had taken away a good part of her self-esteem.
“Neither the medicine nor two years of therapy worked for me,” Diana tells us during a break from her teaching activity at PS 28 Wright Brothers School in Washington Heights. “In my mind I never had silence or peace, I was always worried about issues that were not even in my hands to solve and I had a hard time falling asleep at night.”
The definitive solution came after an invitation from a friend to go running. A year after he made that determination, today at 39 years old he has control of his life and the situation is the opposite of what he found himself in at that time.
“Now when I finish running 8, 10 or 13 miles, I feel higher, that feeling that runners call that and that is when your body feels phenomenal and you calculate that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. You don’t feel any pain and you look back realizing that you did something you weren’t capable of before.”
Diana details that the benefits to her mental health came a couple of months after she decided to put on her tennis shoes and go for a group run. “I was able to sleep at night because after this physical activity you only put your head on the pillow and fall, you wake up when the alarm clock rings and not two or three times during the early morning.”
Upon noticing the emotional and mental changes, Diana said “this is my thing,” also experiencing that during the day I felt more full of energy and vitality. Finally, the changes in her body took a little longer, but after six months of consistency she noticed how they began to tell her that she looked younger, they asked her what she had done. On a trip to Colombia, where she has her roots, she was asked the same thing and she offered her only but forceful answer: “I haven’t done anything to myself, I’m just running.”
Diana is now one of the members of New York Road Runners (NYRR) who this Saturday, May 4, along with 5,000 other runners, will participate in the NYRR Mindful 5K in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, a race that consecrates the profound impact that running has on mental health.
Prior to the start, participants will be able to take a meditation session sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New York City (NAMI-NYC) offered by Peloton instructors Mariana Fernández and Kristin McGee.
The run is the first of many events NYRR hosts in May that they have called Mental Health Awareness Month.
Mental illness, a silent enemy
Diana Carolina Rincón overcame stress and anxiety after participating in athletic events./Courtesy
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, almost 50,000 suicides were recorded in the United States, 27,000 involving firearms. Hate crimes reached their highest figure that same year, reaching 11,288.
Now 1 in every 4 families in the nation—this being a conservative figure—suffers from domestic violence, a new pandemic as recognized after COVID. This year, dozens of “unprovoked attacks” against women have been reported in New York City, in unprecedented events.
Everywhere you look there are problems that we can accuse of a social problem of unaddressed, even ignored, mental health.
“For this reason, we believe that the most important thing to begin with is to destigmatize the problem of mental health. And just as before these diseases did not exist even in our vocabulary, now it is a topic that is talked about more,” German Martínez, Vice President of Community Impact at NYRR, shares with El Diario: “At that time we want to create an athletics race. “, simple, low-cost, so that people understand the importance of exercise to face this type of illness.”
Speaking on behalf of runners, “they know the positive impact activity can have on their mental health,” suggests New York Road Runners CEO Rob Simmelkjaer. “Highlighting the power of running to build healthier lives and stronger communities is central to our mission and that is why we are proud to also use this platform to educate, share resources and raise awareness about mental health,” encourages Rob.
For its part, NAMI-NYC recognizes that a good percentage of citizens are affected by some type of mental illness. In the specific case of New York, they offer the information that one in five New Yorkers struggles with their mental health but that the other four may be family or friends. They detail that the age range most affected by the mental health crisis are young adults from 18 to 34 years old, in addition to the fact that throughout the country 20% of children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years old experience a mental disorder, emotional, developmental or behavioral.
Given this outlook that seems discouraging, “we at NYRR want to be part of the solution,” says Martínez, who announces “the entire month and year dedicated to activities aimed at this fight with 60 events for adults or children that we seek to encourage.” to that percentage of people in the community” who can manage mental problems and lead a healthier life.
Martínez refers to the encouraging figures provided by the CDC which indicate how the risks of depression decrease between 18 and 20% when you start exercising. How it happened to Diana Rincón, running, as an accessible, low-cost and low-risk way to improve mental health, also helps reduce stress, improve sleep and increase intellectual capacity.
NYRR and its activities fair
In addition to Diana Rincón, other members of the Fair Run team are Abigail Castillo, a Queens resident, who was born and raised in the Philippines. She came to live in New York at the end of 2022 and immediately found a community of runners that helped her keep the bipolar II disorder that she was diagnosed with in 2018 under control.
One more of those who will run this Saturday is Janie Deegan whose mental health problems led to addiction problems and living on the streets. After finding her way out of running, Janie is now the founder and owner of Janie’s Life-Changing Baked Goods. In her case, exercise and baking bread restored her self-esteem to the extent that her business offers employment and baking classes to young people in vulnerable conditions in East Harlem. Along the way, she often donates products from her business to local community centers and homeless shelters.
However, for those who cannot attend the Saturday race in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, Road Runners, the largest non-profit community organization of runners in the world, has prepared a series of in-person and virtual races in the five New York neighborhoods , community events, initiatives and free school programs that seek to inspire people through running, giving them access to the physical, mental, social, emotional and mental benefits that the activity brings.
For now, on Saturday, May 11, the 2.5-mile NYRR Open Run for an Open Mind will arrive in Highland Park, Brooklyn, also in collaboration with NAMI-NYC. During Mental Health Awareness Month itself, on Sunday, May 19, a 5K run is scheduled at Conference House Park in Staten Island.
“My goal now is to run the New York Marathon, it would be the race of my life and I imagine meeting my mother at the finish line so that she can see that I achieved something in this country; I know that she will give him a lot of pleasure”, concludes Diana Rincón.
Virtual events
From May 1 to May 31, citizens are invited to run 31 miles anywhere or anytime and log their miles in the Strava app.
Rising NYRR Mental Health Matters Virtual Challenge: Through May 31. A series of 30 activities, including breathing exercises, reflection and mindfulness.
Throughout May, www.nyrr.org will have its home page dedicated to mental health with resources, information and stories from runners focused on the positive impact of running on mental health.