Justin Weston and Pita Tupou will run the Auckland Marathon 2024 to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Justin Weston and Pita Tupou will run the Auckland Marathon 2024 to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
The Auckland Marathon is scheduled to take place on November 3
Justin Weston will run the marathon blindfolded to raise $25,000 for the Mental Health Foundation
The 28-year-old aims to support others struggling with depression, inspired by his own experiences
A highlight of the Auckland Marathon is undoubtedly the waterfront views you get while running over the Harbour Bridge and along Tāmaki Drive.
Like other participants, Justin Weston will hear the footsteps of thousands, smell the salty air and feel the breeze on his face - but he will see nothing but black.
The 28-year-old Kiwi has perfect vision but will run the 42km route blindfolded to raise money for Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. The choice of charity isn’t random; Weston has wrestled with depression since he was 18 years old. A decade on, he knows how to handle the black dog and wants to support a charity that helps others do the same.
Running 42km is no easy feat, even when you can see where you’re going. As a personal trainer who does bodybuilding competitions for fun, Weston looks like a poster boy for taking on such challenges, but he said he wasn’t always this way.
A self-described “fat kid” in school, Weston said he dreamed of a fitness career but adults around him pushed him towards a marketing degree. Disinterested and unmotivated, Weston started failing papers but felt clueless about what other paths he could pursue and his apathy hardened into something darker and deeper.
“I was just so miserable and no matter what I was doing, even if I was surfing or this or that there was always a miserable spin on it,” he said, adding that he called it the “cloud” for the way it tainted everything in life.
Justin Weston now works as a personal trainer in Mount Maunganui. Photo / Supplied
Then he was offered the chance to train as a builder in Mount Maunganui.
“I thought I found my passion because it was so much better than depression and uni,” Weston said. Invigorated by the change, depression became a distant memory, but only temporarily. Six years later, Weston started to feel the same dark fog creep into his mind.
“Once I finished my apprenticeship, that’s when all those thoughts started creeping back in again,” he said.
“I had two years of seriously staring at the ceiling, going to my job, just thinking ‘what is life worth’ and no one knew what was going on, not even my wife.”
It was then he realised becoming a builder hadn’t pulled him out of his depression; setting and pursuing a goal had. With this revelation, Weston threw himself into making and pursuing goals.
“I just fell in love with it, like discomfort, pushes you through those boundaries and then the reward afterwards would be like, ‘wow, I just did that’,” he said. He now always has three goals on the go, so once one is complete, there are others still providing momentum.
“If I don’t have a goal in front of me, life feels worthless,” he added.
A recent goal was quitting his job as a builder to become a full-time personal trainer. The next will be the blindfolded marathon. Weston said both have been partly inspired by his mother.
“I come from a background where my mum just used to take people in and help them,” Weston said, crediting it to her Christian faith. Weston isn’t religious himself but said his mother’s compassion inspired him to help people using his skills in the fitness industry.
The idea to run the Auckland marathon blindfolded came from a YouTube video Weston happened upon in May while watching bodybuilding training videos.
He had recently run an unofficial half marathon and while he was considering a full marathon, he wanted something more challenging that could also symbolise his mental health journey.
“That’s when I was like, ‘I’m gonna put a blindfold on, I’ll run a marathon’,” he said. Adding fundraising into the mix felt like the perfect decision.
“Why not help others get through it and share a story and show you could do anything.”
Many runners will participate with a goal time or pace - for Weston, the dream is to raise $25,000 before the race and finish it with friends and family.
“I want to go across that line with my guide and with a bit of a circle around us, just to purely show that symbolism of ‘there are people around you trying to help you through this’,” he said.
As of Thursday, 10 days before the marathon, he has raised almost $2900.
It won’t just be Weston’s first marathon. It will also be the first marathon for his friend Pita Tupou, who will run alongside him as a guide, a job Weston regarded as being much harder.
“He’s got to be very on the ball the whole time to get me through this.” Regardless, Weston said, they will get through it.
