Grandma’s Marathon is much more than just a race.

Not only are the lives of individual’s helped by being part of a running community, even more lives are touched by the organizations that partner with Grandma’s.

One of those organizations is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. They’ve put together teams of runners at Grandma’s for years. This year the AFSP has 54 people on their running team from 14 different states.

Many are running to honor loved ones lost to suicide, or for their own personal healing. Runners like Dave Thompson. Dave lost his sister, Catherine to suicide 13 years ago.

“It’s all about the healing and awareness and the conversation,” Thompson said.

“AFSP needs a lot of funding for their programs. However, it’s really about just fighting the stigma and being out there in the community spreading the word that we all have mental health, just like we all have physical health, and it’s okay to talk about it and normalize it,” Thompson added.

The Grandma’s running team has more than $54-thousand dollars pledged so far. But Thompson said the biggest thing is to get the message out to anyone struggling, to not stay silent. Call or text 988 if you are struggling. You don’t have to be in crisis to reach out either.