A 300km solo run for charity
“The doctor said, if you keep going like this, you're not going to be around for long. And I had to make a choice in that bed.”
The words of Irish-Congolese ultra runner Chris Amour who will embark on a 300km solo run from Dublin to Cork next week to shine a vital light on men’s mental health.
Setting off this Monday, Chris will undertake a gruelling four day journey in aid of self-harm and suicide prevention charity, Pieta House.
The trek will culminate on 28 May at one of Cork's most iconic landmarks – the Shandon Bells – where he plans to ring out the Leeside anthem ‘My Own Lovely Lee’ to celebrate his arrival.
Chris will be running totally solo with no support car as he plots a course through Carlow, Cahir, and Fermoy to his Cork city finish line.
Though capable of running 88km in one day (his current best), Chris insists he is no seasoned athlete.
He said: “I know people may be thinking, you know, this guy is an athlete, he’s an endurance athlete. But I'm really not. I'm just a normal guy. I only picked up running about two years ago after I went through my own ordeal with stuff that was going on in my life.
“Running for me has been how I'm able to stay away from my demons,” added Chris.
In the days leading up to the run, Chris is preparing himself mentally for the toll the run will take on his mind and body. He has never attempted a run like this before.
“I have no idea what my legs or my body are going to feel like when I reach, let's say, 89km,” he explained.
“I'd like to accept the fact that there will come a moment where my body will essentially cease to function properly. I'll have to find something deeper – something else,” said Chris.
That ‘something else’ may well be the very motivation behind the run. After returning to Ireland following a seven-year stint in London, Chris was devastated to learn that two of his close neighbours in Dublin had tragically died by suicide.
Chris had had his own struggles with mental health and addition too, which landed him in a hospital bed in London less than two years ago.
He said: “Knowing what I went through and knowing how you can feel as a man to be in that place. And seeing the look on their family's faces... I'm also a father, and I just felt the pain. That could have been me, that could have been anybody.
“That's why I'm doing this, to raise some awareness. And also, men, we don't speak about issues. We don't talk about stuff, and that's what's killing us because we don't have the ability to reach out for help. I was the same.
“I'm not a superhero. I'm just an average guy who went through a lot and decided to turn my life around,” Chris added.
To support Chris’s journey and donate to Pieta House, visit idonate.ie/fundraiser/manupspeakup.