In the fight to raise awareness for the treatment of mental illness, one father is pushing himself to the limit.
Guy Fessenden has pledged to run 100 marathons in 140 days. The 53-year-old from Hartsdale, N.Y., who has a 28-year-old daughter who suffers from mental illness, is currently training for his marathon of marathons, which will begin Sept. 19 in Savannah, Ga., and conclude in February in Los Angeles.
"I don't have a skill," Fessenden told Westchester News Online. "I don't play the piano, I don't sing, I can't put a ball in a hoop, but I can run, and I feel very strongly about the need to draw attention to some of the real sadness and disparities in the way that we treat people with mental illness."
Fessenden, who has been a runner for the past 12 years and ran the New York City Marathon in 1996, says funds raised will be donated to NARSAD (the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) and NAMI (The National Association for Mental Illness), organizations that research mental illness and offer support for families dealing with it.
Fessenden is documenting his training, which includes daily runs of 25 miles or more, and hopes to share his experiences from the marathons on his website, Afathersjourney.org.
