From grassroots sport up, sport is loaded with awareness rounds and fundraising ventures. This is where sport can be so powerful in creating change and prompting people to think. 

It can also be hard to keep people talking and thinking in sporting worlds where each week is a new themed round – each just an important as the last.

Prince Harry has been encouraging runners in England’s north-east this week as they train to tackle the London Marathon in April. The past month, the young British royals have been on a mission to make the London Marathon the mental health marathon. Their charity Heads Together, which brings together eight major mental health organisations, is the marathon’s nominated charity this year.

But this is a message that can be felt across the world from one of the most prominent marathons in the world.

Almost everyone can run or walk for fitness. Regardless of distance or speed, running and walking can challenge mental toughness whether this be tackling a marathon, aiming for a personal best, training for an event or even just committing to put shoes on and trek a short distance outside.

Prince Harry appealed to runners that if they were injured, like they had hurt their knee, they tended to talk openly about it. Maybe seek medical help.

He wants to break the stigma and make this the same for mental health.

“Our mental fitness is no different. If you feel stressed or like a cloud is hanging over you, you cannot know how to fix that feeling unless you start speaking about it,” Prince Harry said.

“It is hard admitting something is wrong, especially when you can’t explain it...If you do have the courage to speak about it, you do have the courage to make things better.”

We all run or walk for different reasons. In Ballarat do this so well en masse to make a difference each October raising money for the hospital children’s ward with Run Ballarat.

Event day might be the main goal but the personal journey to get to the start line can be just as important.

There is something quite cathartic about training with others and chatting away while you all pound the pavement, staring straight ahead.

‘Solving the world’s problems’ is a popular explanation for it among many runners or walkers. Really, it is a lot like a ‘deep and meaningful' without the box of tissues and ice-cream.

Running and walking alone is also often declared a great head-clearing exercise.

Promoting London Marathon as a mental health marathon is so fitting.

Already people are talking and pondering the potential mental and physical benefits to pull on runners. The ripple effects of this are so important to help break the stigma in acknowledging when something does not feel right – even if this is just running with a friends and dissecting seemingly little issues or taking time for yourself to think.

Then, knowing once your run is complete, no matter distance or speed, you have made an achievement.