Running 26.2 miles might not be everyone’s ideal Sunday morning, but for members of Hope for the Day’s Team Thrive it’s a way to reach a personal accomplishment and help end the stigma around mental health. Members of Team Thrive will be running in the 2021 Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 10.

Team Thrive celebrates the connection between the mind and body — how mental and physical health can impact each other. 

In 2014, endurance athlete Dan Hohs worked with Hope for the Day to start Team Thrive as a way to promote wellness and end the stigma around mental health. Although Hohs has since passed, his positivity and dedication live on through Team Thrive.

Friend and fellow athlete Sarah Moss has been carrying on Hohs’s legacy by leading Team Thrive.

According to Moss, Team Thrive isn’t just for endurance athletes. It’s about simply being active whether that’s taking a walk, bike ride or yoga class — whatever physical fitness means to you.

While physical fitness is easier to see than mental health, it doesn’t make it any more important. But for Moss discussions about one’s physical health are typically more common.

“Athletes, we have no problem talking about our physical ailments,” Moss said. “Whether we have a shin splint, a broken ankle, we had back surgery — we have no problem talking about that but we never talk about our mental health.”

Other members of Team Thrive echoed the sentiment. Fitness coach and first-time marathoner Jonathan Koch said that his mental and physical health work together, each helping the other.

“They have a very symbiotic relationship because there are times where my mental health is dwindling or waning, my physical health will pick up some of the slack in a way,” Koch said.

Koch has been involved with Hope for the Day for the past three years as a volunteer and most recently as an instructor for The Things We Don’t Say education. Because of that, he said the decision to run with Hope for the Day as a charity partner was an easy one.

Koch and fellow first-time marathoner Andrew Simmerling both use physical fitness as a way to valve off the pressure of day-to-day and clear their minds. Simmerling noted it helps stop overthinking.

“If you want to get out of your brain, get into your body,” Simmerling said. “If you’re working through a problem and you feel like you’re totally stuck and you can’t solve it, one of the best things you can do is go do something really hard physically.”

Taking care of your body can be a great way to help your brain. While it can’t change everything, Simmerling said, “It’s a really powerful way to stack the deck in your favor.”

Koch and Simmerling are among the 16 runners representing Hope for the Day. The full team running includes:

• Angie McLeod

• Ashley Colburn

• Andrea Leibrandt

• Lisa Folkers

• Ben Lopez

• Melissa Franada

• Mariel Gardiner

• Allison Boyle

• Jaimie Oh

• Jill Perry

• Jacki Van Hall

• Jonathan Koch

• Andrew Simmerling

• Constantin Britcov

• Emily Wisniewski

You can support Hope for the Day and Team Thrive by donating here.