What began as one man’s method to stay centered through life’s ups and downs grew into an awareness event that reminded everyone in the community to make mental health a priority.
Stephens City resident Robbie Witherall, a 2015 graduate of Handley High School in Winchester, returned to his alma mater last month to see if he could run 100 miles on the school’s outdoor athletic track in just two days. The endurance challenge was Witherall’s tip of the hat to May being Mental Health Awareness Month and his way of showing the importance of personal wellness.
The genesis of the event that was held May 23-24 occurred in 2024 when Witherall started using running as a means of caring for his body and mind.
“I had a job change and I got engaged,” Witherall, an employee of Navy Federal Credit Union, said on Tuesday. “It was amazing.”
But after weeks of elation spurred by those positive life changes, winter came and brought Witherall a case of seasonal depression that chilled his spirit.
“Life has valleys and hills, and I hit a super low,” he said. “So I made it a goal of mine to start running in 2025.”
Witherall first donned a pair of track shoes in April of last year and immediately fell in love with running because it kept him centered.
When 2025 rolled into 2026, Witherall decided to put his running to the test by competing in a 100-mile foot race. He registered for the C&O Canal 100, a two-day endurance event held over a 30-hour period April 25-26 near Knoxville, Maryland.
“It was a lot of fun,” Witherall said of the race. “The community [of runners] is amazing.”
While he was training for the C&O Canal 100, Witherall reflected on how running benefitted his own mental health and wondered how he could share that message with others. His solution was to run 100 miles on Handley’s track, hoping that his two-day public endeavor would highlight the importance of self care during Mental Health Awareness Month.
Witherall picked Memorial Day weekend for his endurance challenge, but that was before he learned that the weather forecast for May 23-24 called for rain, rain and more rain. The same soggy weather system forced the cancellation of the May 21 opening ceremony for the annual Healing Field of Honor flag display on Handley High School’s campus, but Witherall refused to let the storms dampen his ambitions.
“It was raining, a little bit cold” when he stepped on Handley’s oval track on the morning of May 23, Witherall said. With the support of friends and family who came out to cheer him on, he ran a total of 50 miles that day.
“It was amazing how they pushed me,” Witherall said of his supporters, several of whom decided to run or walk the track alongside him.
When Day 2 rolled around, Witherall resumed his challenge and planned to log in the remaining 50 miles, but his body had other ideas.
“I was broken,” he said, explaining that the 50 waterlogged miles he ran the day before had taken a severe physical toll. “My Achilles [tendon] was hurting, my knee was hurting. I just kept trying to put one foot in front of the other and hoped that, eventually, the pain would subside.”
He used ear buds to listen to music in an effort to take his mind off the discomfort. While there were moments when Witherall’s body aches lessened, the strain he had put on his body the day before continuously slowed his progress.
Regardless, he kept running.
“If you continue to push, one of the most beautiful things is that eventually, you come back and you feel better,” Witherall said. “You do that process again and again and again. It’s true problem solving in real time, figuring out what the problem is, trying to do whatever you can to solve it and then keep going.”
Witherall tried switching shoes and changing socks but nothing helped. After 13 hours on the track on May 24, he could only complete 25 miles.
“I didn’t want to push it to another day so I called it quits,” he said.
But by no stretch of the imagination did Witherall fail in his endurance challenge. While he could only finish 75 miles rather than 100, his family and friends had also been taking laps to support him and draw more attention to the importance of mental health. Together, Witherall and his cheering section logged a cumulative total of 200 miles over the two-day challenge.
“I may not have hit my goal of 100 but, as a whole, we crushed the goal,” Witherall said.
And he isn’t done. Witherall said he would love to try another 100-mile awareness event, possibly later this year, and he hopes that many more people will join him in the endeavor.
“Instead of making it a personal challenge, it’d be pretty awesome as a community to bring awareness to mental health,” Witherall said. “Instead of 100, let’s try as a conglomerate to do 300 to 400 miles. I’ll do everything I can to get as many miles as I can, and whoever else comes will help us get to that overall goal.”