Team Resilience Runner Highlight – Ingrid Wefing

Team Resilience is comprised of all of the amazing athletes that have come together to support Erika’s Lighthouse in the mission to Get Depression Out of the Dark. Our team ranges from twenty to seventy-year-olds, first-time runners, to marathon experts. What do they all have in common? The desire to make a difference. We are so proud of our members we have decided to highlight many of them.

Browse our team highlights where several of our team members open up to talk about their reason for running and running for a cause. Find your inspiration to tackle your next big challenge or support a runner.

Ingrid is a senior at Amherst College and has already run a half-marathon for us.

Is this your first Marathon?  Yes!! I am so excited 🙂

What inspired you to run? My swim career ended last year and in a time of craziness and uncertainty running seemed like the perfect thing to do. It kept me motivated to get active and made me happy in a different way than my 17-year swimming career. It got me outside during quarantine (safely) and gave me concrete goals to work towards. 

Why did you decide to fundraise for Erika’s Lighthouse? Erika’s Lighthouse is an incredibly important cause for teens and adolescents (and everyone). As someone who has struggled with mental health myself, I think it is so important to normalize struggling with depression. Especially as a college student, it seems that depression, anxiety, and mental health issues, in general, have affected almost all of my friends in some way. It is so important that these common, life-threatening struggles are destigmatized. I just want people to continue to lift each other up and support each other. Erika’s lighthouse helps start those conversations.

What do you do in your free time? In my free time, I love to spend time with family and friends, sing, play guitar, go on long hikes, read, and spend hours bullet journaling! 

If you could train anywhere in the world, where would it be? I would love to train in Norway. It is supposed to be so beautiful there, I’ve never been, and I would love to run some mountains there. 

What’s your favorite pre-race snack? My favorite pre-race snack is definitely the pasta the night before.

How do you de-stress? To de-stress I bullet journal, do yoga, go for a walk in the woods, or take a quick swim.

Who is in your support network? My support network is made up of my family, especially my sister, and my best friends who live all across the country (NY, MA, MD, NC, CO, AL).

What’s one piece of advice you wish you received as a teenager? Don’t be afraid to ask for help! It doesn’t show weakness. It shows incredible strength and it is a very important skill when learning how to advocate for yourself in difficult situations in the future. 

To support Ingrid in her fundraising efforts, click here.