Thousands of University of Canterbury students are lacing up their running shoes as they prepare to run a 72-hour relay for mental health.
This year the Running 72 event by Lads Without Labels is expected to attract not only students, but the NZ Army, police and even lecturers will be hitting the pavement for a non-stop three day run.
Lads Without Labels is a not-for-profit charity operating outside of the University of Canterbury to improve the state of mental health and well-being care for all students, particularly men's mental health.
The event was first started in 2021, stemming from the sobering 2020 statistic that 72 percent of deaths by suicide in Aotearoa New Zealand were men.
Last year, 6454 laps were run, a total of 11,617km, and raised over $15,000 for the Lads Without Labels charity.
A huge 72 kilometres of that was run by club president George Glover, who ran five hours on the first day during the graveyard shift.
This year the army is expected to help out with the late nights and early morning jogs, and even the police have a team lined up to run a few laps.
"Young men get out of high school they are a bit lost, especially at university," Glover said.
"We created this brotherhood to lift each other up."
He said last year around 2000 people attended over the three days and this year they are hoping for even more.
Lads Without Label's Ugly Boy Running club coordinator, which is a group of 60 men who run for a change to get psychologically and physically fit, Justus Duncanson said he ran a marathon in a wetsuit last year.
He said the event gets people, not only from the university, together.
"It enables people to actually open up and talk. We had heaps of people last year just come and love being in the presence of people," Duncanson said.
Duncanson said some people told him during the event was the most they had talked to people all year.
"Now they have got people on campus they can walk past and at least say hello," he said.
The event runs from 4pm Tuesday until 4pm Friday at the University of Canterbury, with the public encouraged to attend.
"You do not have to be a good runner by any means. In fact, you don't need to be a runner at all. Running 72 is about community and showing up for each other. Running-72 is ours."
