Six elite ultra-marathon runners are in the middle of a 24-day run from California to Washington D.C. to raise awareness about mental illness. They hit North Texas Thursday night.
"Honestly, I'm thinking about how I've never been so exhausted," said Pam Rickard, as she ran through Weatherford at sundown. "But so filled up at the same time."
Rickard has battled alcoholism and depression. Each of the six runners has a personal story about mental illness.
"You know, we're trying to talk about those exact things," she said, running a 10 mile per hour pace. "Talk about the things that sometimes are not so fun to talk about. Things that are things, that have a stigma."
The Icebreaker Run isn't to raise money, just awareness.
"We want to break that stigma," Rickard said. "We want to make it OK to ask for help, to admit we're hurting and accept the healing that's out there."
Rickard said the runners have been bolstered by support they've received on the road in North Texas. They will run in shifts, 24 hours a day, until they reach Washington.
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"We might not save the world with this, but we're going to make a difference," Rickard explained. "We already have actually."
