Most people would recoil at the thought of waking up at 4am each morning to run a half-marathon before starting work. But for single mum-of-three and business owner Helen Ryvar, it's "like therapy".
The 42-year-old from Wrexham has beaten her own consecutive half-marathon Guinness World Record streak of 111 runs and shows no signs of stopping. On Sunday, January 15 Helen ran for the 260th time in a row, surpassing her initial target of 150 runs. She has now set herself the goal of running a 333-day streak.
Although she has always enjoyed running, Helen said she started running seriously after her ex-husband died suddenly in 2020 following a mental health battle. Having struggled with her own mental health in the past, Helen is motivated to run by raising money for charity Mind to help others in need of support. She said in turn, running has nurtured her "mind, body and soul" - and she's on a mission to encourage others to give it a go too.
Read more: Mum and daughter fled fighting in Ukraine but now face homelessness as Welsh sponsor pulls out
She said: "I was living in north east England and I moved back to Wales about seven years ago [after the marriage broke down]. I was overweight, at about 17 stone and would eat to comfort myself. I had low self confidence, I felt unloved and unworthy. My marriage had broken down and I had to give up my job to relocate. I felt like a failure in every aspect. My ex-husband was gaslighting me and it made me feel useless and worthless.
"My sister at the time was training to be in Team GB in the rowing squad, so she was training and super fit. I was seeing her and thought I needed to jump on her bandwagon, she subconsciously motivated me to start running. It helped give me mental freedom and a sense of achievement."
When Helen's ex-husband died just before lockdown in 2020, she said she knew she needed a focus to ground her and help her navigate the grief. She said: "Overnight I became a single parent to three children. He suffered from mental health issues and it was unexpected, it came as a shock to all of us. I had to look after my children who were about 10 and 12 at the time, it was the most heart-wrenching thing I've gone through in my life.
"At that point, I could have gone one of two ways - we were in lockdown and grieving. I thought I could eat or drink myself silly or I could do something about it. I needed a new focus and that's what running gave me. It was the consistency that helped me - doing it every day chipped away like how the sea chips at a stone and makes it smoother. Running on grief is difficult, but also so is sitting down and doing nothing."
Helen said she started running every day and soon progressed to running around 10 miles and then the half-marathon distance of around 13 miles. As she progressed, she decided to look up the world record for the highest number of consecutive half-marathon runs in the world to set herself a goal.
She said: "I saw the record was 75 at the time. I also saw a lady in Africa had done about 100 - which was an unofficial record. I was on around 70-something and thought I could try and get to 100. To clear it, I got to 111. The running kept my mind sane. When that ended, I continued to do bits and bobs."
In April 2022, Helen said a man from Miami got in touch with her to see if she would do a running streak with him. She said he had achieved 400 runs in a row and was looking for motivation to carry on.
"I committed to 150 as my first goal," she said. "But when I achieved that I felt I could do more. I got to 149 and I thought I'm not done. I thought I would try and get to 222 to double my 111. Then I got to 222 and I thought I'm still not ready to finish. It's become part of my routine now, It's just something I do like brushing my teeth or going to work." You can view Helen's fundraiser for Mind here.
Helen, who owns her own cleaning business, said she has to be very disciplined to get her runs in before she starts work. However, she said waking up early sounds a lot worse than it is - it gives her much needed head space.
She said: "I get up at 4am and I'm out of the door at 4.15am at the very latest. I make sure I have my bag packed. I just have a pint of water and go. I know I'm going to be done at 6.30am at the very latest. I get back and then have a half-hour soak in the bath every morning before getting the kids up. I work 9am to 5pm most days, then come home to see the children. I have about an hour to myself before I go to bed, and in that time I have to do my own cleaning in the house and any admin I have left.
"When I'm running I listen to podcasts or audio books, and some days I listen to my own thoughts and the bird song. The only sacrifice is that I have to go to bed early. I have to be in bed from 9pm to 10pm at night so I have at least six hours of sleep."
Helen said she has kept going for so long by treating the run as an adventure or act of self-care, rather than as a race. She enjoys documenting it on her Instagram page. "I'm not trying to get a personal best on any of these runs, I'm just trying to enjoy the adventure and see where it takes me. I love taking photos and seeing things. It's my therapy and it gives me so much more than it takes.
"It's time away from people, things and social media. A lot of people miss out on that because the first thing they do when they wake up is check social media. It's interesting to listen to your own thoughts and it's a way to process everything. I haven't taken antidepressants for about seven years now. I also lost four stone and I have kept that off."
Now 260 days into her streak, Helen said she has covered the equivalent elevation of running up and down Mount Everest three times - something that has given her a huge sense of achievement. Once she completes her 333 runs, she said she wants to start a challenge on running platform Strava, to encourage others to give it a go too. She hopes it will help others improve their mental-wellbeing.
She said: "It's a personal mission of mine now. I want to get to 333, and if I get to 333 I want to create a group on Strava to get people involved in a streak for the whole of April together as a community. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I'm not a typical runner: I'm a size 14 single parent with three kids and I'm not from a particularly sporty background. I'm just a normal girl next door who has given it a go."
READ NEXT:
- The villagers who fear they will be overrun when the Green Man festival comes to their village
- 'Cancer has destroyed me and left me alone. I should be allowed to end my life'
- Creepy Welsh mansion where Owain Glyndwr buried a rival is falling apart
- Life in one of the UK's 'poshest' villages on the west Wales coast
- Life in the Welsh valley that's 'like the land that time forgot'
