Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
A 22-year-old man is embarking on what he hopes to be a nine-day journey, running across the state of Utah to raise awareness — and money — for suicide prevention. Starting in Cornish, Cache County, at the border of Idaho, and ending in St. George, Adam Burns plans to make the 420-mile journey in nine days. Averaging 46.5 miles a day, he has an ultimate mission to raise money and awareness for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The grueling run, scheduled to begin on Friday morning, is more than an athletic challenge; it’s a personal quest rooted in his own experience with mental health struggles and suicidal ideation throughout his teenage and early adult years. After finishing high school in Provo, he attended Santa Monica Community College in California, only to find himself lonely and deeply depressed. After a friend spoke to him about a summer job selling security, Burns began to sell security and solar power door-to-door. He was successful in his first year, but by the second year, Burns says he started having thoughts of suicide. “I just hated what I was doing,” he said. “‘That was the most suicidal I ever was, that second summer; we were in a small town in Kansas, and I just remember … I wanted to be gone, but I didn’t want my family to know that I did.” Ultimately, what stopped Burns from going through with the thoughts of suicide was his family. He recalls having “a good upbringing and loving parents,” who didn’t deserve to be put through losing their son to suicide. Once home, Burns said he searched for ways to cope with his mental health and found running. “When I started running, I was depressed, and then running every day … for me, I found that it’s pretty much like a natural antidepressant. If I go run, the rest of the day, I’m just pretty centered,” Burns said. His passion for running evolved into a passion for helping people after a marathon he participated in and his experience with the aid tables at the marathon stations, where people provide runners with support and supplies. He found the aid tables helped him “keep going,” describing them as “super contagious” and giving him a sense of community he had never felt before. “I had nothing to do on a Saturday. I’ll just go set up aid tables for people that are on their runs. And the goal is to help people out, just talk to people, do something with my Saturday morning, rather than just sitting around,” Burns explained. “Then the video ended up doing really well, and companies started reaching out and sending me stuff to hand out,” he said, adding that his Instagram followers began to grow, from 3,000 to 12,000 followers in a few months. “I want to use social media for good … to show people that there’s still good in the world,” Burns said. His biggest goal is to inspire others to pursue positive change, focusing much of his energy on raising awareness for suicide prevention. Ultrarunner Matt Johnson ran across Texas and Mason Wright ran across Utah earlier this year. “I’ve always wanted to do something really hard, and didn’t really know what to do. I had the mindset of these people that do these things are different than I am. … And then after meeting Matt, who was about to run across Texas. I saw him as a normal guy that’s just choosing to do this hard thing. I could do that.” Currently Burns is on a 491-day run streak, as he gears up for his run across Utah, he acknowledges the anxiety of the unknown, particularly the challenges his body and the elements may present. However, he remains committed to his purpose. Burns concludes, “I’m excited to just kind of have a deep dive into my own mind for nine days where I’m just left with my thoughts and time to think about why I’m doing this and I want to raise a bunch of money for suicide prevention and hopefully, inspire people to make changes in their life and the main thing I’m trying to get out of it is giving other people hope and to feel like I’m doing my part,”
