For Ed, Running is Health, Therapy, and Remembrance

Ed Patrick is always on the move.

Since he was 5, Ed played soccer and hockey, and went out for runs with friends from time to time. He and his wife climb mountains – Ed proposed when the two hiked to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro together. They are also 46ers – members of a club who have climbed to the top of the 46 Adirondack mountains with a summit elevation over 4,000 feet.

Their family continued to move upward and onward in 2018, welcoming a daughter in June. As it does during those early years as a young family, the next two years moved quickly. Ed focused almost exclusively on navigating fatherhood and his work at Rochester Regional Health.

Personal struggles come to light

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the uncertainty of the world for Ed and their little family peeled back the curtain on struggles that had been just under the surface.

“I struggled mightily with anxiety and depression, and amidst that struggle most of my friendships fizzled out,” Ed said.

The next two years became a challenging internal struggle for Ed. Toward the end of 2021, he underwent a major shoulder surgery, a procedure that would set off a long and painful road to recovery. He couldn’t hold his daughter for very long because of the pain in his shoulder.

It became clear to Ed that he needed to channel the negative energy into something positive.

“Going into 2022, I made a New Year’s resolution to walk at least one mile each day for the entire year,” Ed said. “That feeling of isolation and being stuck inside all day was a big part of me wanting to make sure I took care of myself and got outside more.”

A few weeks into 2022, the walks became routine. One day, just to see what it felt like, Ed stepped up to a very slow jog – even with his right arm still in a sling. It went well enough that he decided that day to register for a 5-mile race that would start on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in five weeks.

At the finish line, Ed was proud of himself.

“I felt that kind of spark of positivity,” Ed said. “There was a good thing that came out of it. I felt capable again and it helped boost my morale of getting through physical therapy. I started thinking that I could make running a part of my lifestyle.”

As a Program Manager at Genesee Mental Health PROS with Rochester Regional Health, Jennifer Maxa, LCSW, says running helps to improve mental health by reducing stress and improving your mood.

 “There is a feeling of resiliency and perseverance that comes from putting those miles in,” Maxa said. “The idea of the ‘runner’s high’ can really help with symptoms of anxiety and depression by improving your mood.”

Going all in on running

Ed’s hard work pushed him back into running consistently again, ushering in the Flower City Challenge 5K in April and the Lilac Festival 10K race in May. He went to Fleet Feet Rochester to have a gait assessment done so they could help him get the shoes and gear he needed.

After the 10K race, Ed told his best friend he was signing up for the Rochester Half Marathon – his first-ever race of that distance. His training would start in late June.

Less than two weeks into training for the half marathon, Ed received a call that his best friend had died unexpectedly of a heart condition.

“He was that one person in my life that I shared literally everything with, and had been since I was my daughter’s age,” Ed said. “I had played soccer with him and had gone on leisurely runs with him countless times throughout our lives.”

Less than two weeks later, another good friend died unexpectedly. All the depression and anxiety that Ed thought he had left behind were ripped straight to the surface again. For the rest of July and most of August, the only things he felt he could do were to wake up, work from home, and check one more day off of his training schedule.

“I told myself, I can get through this and go through the mental and emotional nonsense that I’m dealing with,” Ed said. “It was almost too much to bear. I wanted to get through it and get out the other side.”

“That was my goal – take it one day at a time. That told me if I could get through that, I could do anything I wanted to do.”

The idea of living out an attitude of mental and physical resilience is something that Maxa finds with running, as well.

“When you start to notice those negative thoughts that creep in, if you go out for a run, you realize, ‘I can do hard things,’” Maxa said. “’I can manage difficult situations. I'm out here. I'm doing this.’ In the end, it is a reminder that things will be okay.”

Finding new reasons to run

Toward the end of August, the running took on a sense of purpose and remembrance for Ed. He decided to run for his two friends – and for himself.

When Ed crossed the finish line of the Rochester Half Marathon in September 2022, he knew that he had left something behind him – and that a renewed driving force would propel him forward in life.

That sense of purpose pushed him to run two more half marathons in 2023, along with an incredible new accomplishment: finishing the Wineglass Marathon in Corning that fall.

Throughout 2024, Ed ran four more half marathons and encouraged his wife to train and join him in September for her first half marathon.

What started out as a way for Ed to take care of himself by getting outside more often became a pathway to better physical and mental health. It serves a way for him to switch off his brain and simply be in the moment.

Most importantly for their family, though, their daughter is now joining them – running three races on her own.

“A big inspiration for it was my daughter," Ed said. "She was 4 when this started and I wanted to be the best version of myself on the other end of this that I could be for her.”

Ed is running the Flower City Challenge in April, and his daughter will be running the Kids’ ½ mile race.

“Running has now become symbolic of my own determination, resiliency and perseverance,” Ed said. “Without it, I may never have been able to navigate what life has thrown at me over these past several years, and with it, I hope to continue this journey toward a long, healthy, and fulfilling life, and to inspire those closest to me to see the tangible and intangible benefits to a running life.”

 

 

 

 

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