Why I Run

The last couple of years have been varied and full of change for runner Sean Hayes. This short film gives us an insight and introduction how running has fit into this mix and his mental health. It's ok not to be ok.

I met Sean only a few days before filming this particular project. We met up in a local Fort William cafe and just talked about who we were over a couple of hours, supported with coffee and cake. One aspect of Sean’s life that kept cropping up was the story of his mental health; he talked about it so openly and was happy to share what he had been through in relation to his depression and the backstory of how it affected him to this day. 

Sean’s connection between trail running and mental health was something that I thought could be an inspiring message to others; so a couple of days later I came back to him with a visual story line of how I wanted to tell his story. Then, we headed out into the hills and started filming. After the filming process came the hardest part of this particular project, the edit. I wanted to be careful with how I told Sean’s story, as obviously it’s his to tell, not mine.