From Burnout to Breakthrough: How Running in Brighton Helped Me Rebuild My Mind
Running in Brighton for Mental Health: How I Reclaimed My Power Through Movement | Jo Renshaw Life Coach
What if the life you’re living right now isn’t the one you were meant for?
Have you ever found yourself waking up every morning with that same knot in your stomach, wondering if this is it, feeling like your mind never stops attacking you, second-guessing, judging, spiralling through overthinking?
That was me, back in 2013. I had just turned 40, newly bankrupt, recently out of university with no job, in a relationship that wasn’t working, and feeling completely disconnected from the life I wanted. I’d also just quit smoking after 25 years, and I needed something—anything—that felt better than the anxious spiral I was stuck in.
I felt instinctively that I needed something to occupy my time that would feel better, and give me better results on the other side, than smoking had. Smoking felt temporarily good and then awful afterwards, once the hit of nicotine had worn off.
And yet, I had a sliver of belief that something could be different. I had heard stories of incredible transformations and people enduring great hardship.
Maybe you're there right now. Maybe you're craving something that brings you back to yourself, something that reminds you who you are under the noise of your brain.
For me, that something was running. That first run along Madeira Drive wasn’t long, or fast, or impressive.
But running in Brighton turned out to be the beginning of a major change in my life.
In this blog I’m going to share my running journey with you and how my life changed running around Brighton, a city that I was still deeply in love with after 14 years resident.
When Everything Fell Apart: My Life Before Running
Back then, my brain was relentless. Criticising. Judging. Ruminating. Overthinking. Whilst I was deeply unhappy with my life as it was, I knew it was within my control to change much of it. I was determined to make changes and create a better life for myself and be a good example to my daughter, as my own Mum had been for me.
I may have quit smoking but I was not ever going to quit on my dreams of having money in the bank, a happy relationship and a good job.
I didn’t know exactly how to “fix” things, but I did have two things: faith that I’d always be taken care of, and a growing list of things I was grateful for, like the roof over my head and the sea on my doorstep.
Running wasn’t a grand plan, but it was a start. It was radically different from anything else I’d done in my life to that point. I knew it could cause me no harm, at least and that was a win I was willing to go for.
You don’t need to be ready, you just need to begin. At first, I could barely run a mile. My fitness up to that point had been mostly dog walking and dancing at parties for the past several years. Something told me to keep going, though.
The Steyning Stinger Half Marathon in 2015 was so much fun. 13.1 miles of pure MUD!
Running in Brighton Became My Mental Health Reset
I started with the basics: short jogs along the seafront. Then longer runs through Queen’s Park, Sheepcote Valley, and up toward Woodingdean. Brighton became my gym, sanctuary, and Life Coach rolled into one.
At a time when my brain was noisy and cruel, the rhythm of running offered something radical: silence.
I noticed something else too. The hardest part wasn’t the run itself. It was getting out the front door. But once I did my body took over. One foot in front of the other. The simplicity of it was soothing. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with running.
The city I lived in, so full of colour, sound, and sky, became the backdrop for my return to myself.
The Simple Trick That Helped Calm My Anxious Brain
My mind was chaotic when I ran, always trying to drag me back into self-doubt or panic. So one day, I tried a new approach. I started naming what I could see…
The sea. A tree. A lamppost. A seagull. Another runner.
I listed neutral, factual things in my mind. I wanted to find things that my brain couldn’t argue with, and it could not argue with ‘there is a tree’
It felt to me like a miracle - my brain went quiet. As the miles passed by, the noise and chatter became less. By the time I arrived back home not only was my mind quiet but I felt at peace, something I hadn’t felt for years.
I’d discovered a mindfulness tool that helped me return to the moment, again and again.It was this practice of observation whilst I ran that helped me regain control over my thoughts.
For the first time I really saw the difference between what’s happening and what I’m thinking about what’s happening. I had read lots of personal development books and understood the theory, but this was a visceral experience of the difference between the facts of the world and our thoughts.
Try it: on your next walk, name what you see. Notice the difference it makes.
With my sister at the finish line of Brighton Marathon in 2015, and in the Panathenaeic Stadium, Athens after running the breadth of Greece, from Maratonas to Athens, the route of the very first Marathon.
Training for the Brighton Marathon, and Discovering My Power
What started as a few local runs quickly grew and became an obsession, even though I found it really difficult and struggled to get out of the front door on many occasions (It’s too cold, I don’t want to, it’s raining, I suddenly have this other extremely important thing to do type complaints from my brain)
My sister phoned and told me she’d signed up for a half marathon. We are thick as thieves, and so if one of us suggests something fun, or a bit out there, or adventurous the other joins in. We ran our first Half Marathon in Holkham Park, close to our family home, and then despite swearing we never would, we signed up for the Brighton Marathon 2015.
That’s when I found Run Brighton, a local training group that met every Sunday morning. We ran through places I’d never explored: Stanmer Park, the Downs near Steyning, the Undercliff at Rottingdean. We started with an hour-long run in November and added 10 minutes each week. Mile by mile, my confidence grew.
I learned how to fuel properly, how to stretch, how to care for my body in a way that reflected the new found respect I had for it as my legs covered miles and miles.
Brighton wasn’t just the city I lived in anymore. It was my co-conspirator in change.
Week by week, mile by mile, my confidence grew.
I learned to fuel, to stretch, to rest. I started seeing my body not as a problem to fix but a partner to trust.
Completing the Great North Run in 2023, the worlds largest Half Marathon, with my sister.
Reclaiming Confidence, One Step at a Time
In 2015, I crossed the finish line of the Brighton Marathon, something I never knew, until that moment that I was capable of. As I crossed the line, holding my sisters hand and cheering for us both a new thought landed in my brain so deeply it changed the trajectory of my life:
“The only person stopping me from achieving anything I want is me.”
That was it. One simple new thought in the form of a sentence. I was no longer the woman trying to outrun her anxiety or hide from her past. I was a marathon runner.
I was a woman who had shown up for herself, and who knew how to begin again, even when it was hard.
What if that thought is true for you, too?
Since that first run in 2013 I’ve gone on to run 4 marathons, including the route of the original marathon from the town of Maratonas to Athens in Greece, countless half marathons and 10k races. I landed a dream job about a week after that first marathon. Today I run my own business alongside a successful career in Marketing.
Brighton 10k in 2023 with my daughter Florence. I’m so proud of her and running a race with her was a total joy.
What This Means for You
You might not be training for a marathon. You might just be trying to get out of bed in the morning without feeling overwhelmed by emotions.
But if you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, if you’re secretly wondering whether you’ve lost your spark, know this:
If it’s possible for me, aged 40, after 25 years as a smoker, with diagnosed panic disorder and chronic anxiety to run a marathon and change my entire identity, then it’s possible for you too.
This I know for sure.
And if you want support while you do that, I’d be honoured to walk (or run) alongside you.
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