Here at DMARGE, we’ve long covered fitness and mental health, but rarely do we see quite such a powerful crossover of those two categories as this; after months spent trumpeting the benefits of psychedelics, sobriety, and cold water, one bloke from Bondi may have shown us all that the key to wellness lies in one simple but often overlooked thing: community.
In the early hours of every Saturday morning, before the sun rises over Sydney’s Bronte Beach, Trent Knox embarks on what has become the most important ritual of his life and, it seems, the lives of so many others.
His story began in 2016 when Knox, grappling with a whole host of personal demons — many of which we suspect are felt by blokes around the world — started the “440 Run Club” as a way to combat his struggles with substance abuse, the long shadow of a turbulent childhood, and dissatisfaction in his professional life.
The club, whose name is inspired by the 440-meter stretch runners conquer towards the top of the hill at Bronte Beach, quickly gained traction, with Knox’s merry band of acolytes growing slowly larger:
“Sometimes you’ve got to be vulnerable. It helped me, and now it’s helping others. We have [hundreds of] people running with us: cancer survivors, the overweight, people with addiction issues, Parkinson’s patients. Afterwards, we have a swim and a coffee and share our stories.”
Trent Knox
Now, he not only gets hundreds of runners turning up to his weekly runs in Sydney but — even more impressively — the 440 boasts several spin-off clubs that have popped up across Australia and around the world, with people in Los Angeles and NYC joining Aussies in their mission to come together, get physically fit and — most importantly — mentally healthy.
Far too often the notion of “community” is turned into something of a buzzword, taken up by brands and businesses looking to turn a quick buck. Here, however, we see it in its truest, purest, and most potent form, with one man’s struggle and long road to recovery resonating with and uniting thousands. More power.