Portland personal trainer set to complete 365 marathons in 365 days
A Portland PT says he plans to further than the width of Asia over the course of a year for Portland YMCA
A Portland man plans to run a marathon a day for a whole year to inspire those battling with their mental health.
Josh Altoft was diagnosed with depression and anxiety in 2019 but says fitness was the only thing keeping him going.
He told us: “I've been in horrendous positions a lot during my life and I wanted to end things several times to get out of those situations but that is absolutely not the answer.
“Instead, you can use these things as fuel and what kept me going is running and just doing a lot of exercise.”
Over the course of the year, he’ll run 9,563 miles, that’s the equivalent of running from the bottom of South America to the top of Canada.
The 29-year-old hopes to raise money and awareness for Portland YMCA and Dorset MIND who helped him through dark times.
“The YMCA gave me somewhere where I could completely be myself, not to mention the people there helped those who were closest to me,” Josh said.
He added: “You cannot, under any circumstances, just sit there and suffer. It's hell for you as well as everyone else around you. You have to speak about your issues and open up.”
Josh urges those struggling with their mental health to join him on his run as he hopes to prevent people from taking “drastic measures like suicide”.
He said: “We can't have people taking their own lives so now that I've got this platform to speak, I really want to try and help everyone.
“If somebody out there is feeling a certain way because of any circumstance or event I want them to be able to reach out to me.”