My remedy for loneliness
Who doesn't love a good road trip?
There’s been times when I’ve been really lonely in retirement.
But I never feel that way when I’m with the
(R4R) crew.R4R was started to save one life from suicide, and on Sunday we had our 2nd trip to the City2Surf.
Despite the early start, it was so much fun to hit the road, do some exercise, a recovery session, and have beers with friends.
I really miss the Rugby road trips (particularly the ones back to Canberra after beating the Waratahs) and on Sunday, I felt like was back on the team bus after a big win.
Everyone was in such a great mood celebrating hard work, and I want to thank those of you who came along and made the day so special.
We’ll be doing it all again next year, but with the goal of filling 2 buses.
If you’re keen to join us next year and be notified about our trip, give the R4R newsletter a follow (it’s free).
What’s next for R4R
When we started R4R, we thought it would just be a one-off event.
People would come, run, have a beer, and that would be it.
But it’s just kept growing and it’s incredible to see so many people rally around the idea of exercising with friends when you're doing it tough.
It’s a painfully simple message, but one we believe in.
And because R4R was told it’s helped save some lives, we’ve set a goal of a suicide-free ACT by 2033.
Which is a huge task, and we're not entirely sure how we’re gonna do it.
But we’ve got some ideas, and what we do know for sure, is we’ll need a diverse team with experiences from across the entire spectrum of awful life events.
Everything from the death of loved ones, divorces, cancer diagnoses, suicide attempts, eating disorders, trauma, addiction, depression and more.
Because in order to help people going thru something tough, someone in our community needs to know what it’s like, and share how they got thru it.
Now creating a diverse team sounds great and all.
But the problem with that is the members have little in common, other than they’ve gone (or going) thru something tough.
So R4R’s focus for 2023 has been to build a diverse and tightknit team by building a backlog of shared experiences, where the team can get to know each other outside of running.
And by shared experiences, I mean events that bring the team closer together, and the biggest event we do each year so far has been our City2Surf trip.
But we need more opportunities for the community to bond.
So with that in mind, we’ve organised lots more events including:
A visit from the Melbourne Cup
Bring a friend night
And our first-ever gala night!
And you don’t need to be a runner to join our events, as lots of our community are walkers.
So if your keen to start exercising with friends, come join us at R4R 6pm on a Wednesday night for a walk or jog from the Dock.
The course is 30 min regardless of your pace, followed by a free drink.
And if Wednesday night doesn’t suit, we also run 6:15am Monday and Friday, followed by a coffee and chat.
See you there.
Love the early AM run, coffee & chat option. Covering all the bases or for those who struggle and like to avoid no excuses to come share and just be present with people who understand. 😉