By Andrew Meigs and Victor Martinez

The Running & Wellness Club

By Andrew Meigs and Victor Martinez

The Running & Wellness Club at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM) is not your average organization. Originally called “Run Club,” this group was created by a handful of students who shared a passion for staying active and waking up at 5 a.m. Despite the early morning start time, this small group had one infectious quality that they nourished together every time they met: joy. Of course, with joy comes growth, and the small group grew so big they included more days and (thankfully) later meeting times to accommodate the number of people who wanted to join. Eventually, the group expanded the “Run Club” to an official UIWSOM organization, the “Running & Wellness Club,” and included people who wanted to come but perhaps just felt like walking or jogging. As we grew, our emphasis on the organization also grew, and we started to address disparities within our own San Antonio community. For example, as of 2020, San Antonio stayed home to around 3,000 homeless persons that we know of, and houses District 3, the largest area in the city still classified as a “food desert.” Here, the Running & Wellness Club truly began to adopt the UIWSOM mission of improving health and wellness in the San Antonio communities. We began doing this through one of our yearly events of raising pledge donations for miles walked or ran for the San Antonio Food Bank. Throughout quarantine, while adhering to COVID-19 restrictions, we raised $1,062 our first year of fundraising in 2020 and $788 the next year for a total of $1,850! This year, we’ve doubled the number of organizations we are supporting and raised $661 for the Special Olympics.

Aside from using our shared exercising experiences as a platform to help improve our San Antonio community, we understand that the environment cultivated at our Running & Wellness Club is healing in of itself. Over the last five years, research has shown that 50% of medical students experience burnout and 10% of medical students have suicidal ideations. So, we spend extra effort building a welcoming environment for our members − every member of the Running & Wellness Club is a part of our family. Plus, while staying active, we are also grow-

ing relationships and friendships within our school community. We believe this mindset and the coordinated events impact the wellness of medical students by improving our work-life balance and ensuring that we keep ourselves healthy and equipped to treat others. At the end of the day, medical school can be very demanding and overwhelming, so a healthy outlet is a fantastic way to support our physical and mental health.

Moreover, the Running & Wellness Club fosters inclusivity and shared goals by partnering with multiple organizations on campus. For example, our organization co-hosted a “Mental Health Walk” with the Psychiatry Interest Group to further address mental health issues. This 2-mile walk opened a brave and safe space for students, especially struggling first-year medical students, to have an opportunity to voice their honest thoughts and feelings about medical school or life struggles with their peers and upperclassmen. Additionally, at our last co-hosted event, the Running & Wellness Club partnered with our Food and Medicine Club to form a Mediterranean-style potluck dinner. Our organizations chose this theme for the potluck because a Mediterranean diet has been shown to provide many health benefits including improvements in cardiovascular and neurologic health. While adhering to COVID-19 restrictions, we shared our Mediterranean meals together along with their recipes so everyone in attendance could recreate these meals at home.

Currently, the Running & Wellness Club hosts biweekly walks and runs every Wednesday and Saturday of the month either on a trail in Brooks City Base or at Phil Hardberger Park.

Those who enjoy walking follow one of our several 1.5-mile routes and our runners follow one of our 3-mile loops. Our organization is unique in that we have an Adventure Advocate that finds and hosts different adventures once a month for those interested in doing hikes, rock climbing, spelunking, half marathons and fun runs. Our last adventure was at Enchanted Rock where we spent the entire day hiking with students who knew the location. We then concluded the day with dinner in Fredericksburg.

As of now, quite a few of us just started training for the 2022 Run the Alamo Half-Marathon. If you read this entry and end up seeing us in our matching “C. Diff and the Runners” t-shirts at our March 6 race, come spend some time with us! You can find us leading in the front or trailing in the back, because we are diverse and numerous with every member setting their own unique pace. Yet, regardless of speed, we’ll always cheer each other on and celebrate together at the finish line; at the end of the day, we are more than just a “Run Club” − we are a family.

Andrew Meigs is a second-year medical student at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine. Outside of his studies, he holds the presidency position for “Pride in Practice,” his school’s LGBTQI+ organization, the presidency position for his school’s “Running & Wellness Club” and a membership in his school’s “Learner Ambassador Program.”

Victor Martinez is a second-year medical student at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine. While pursuing his medical degree, Victor is also pursuing a Master of Public Health and holds executive positions for the UIW “Running & Wellness Club” and “Student Osteopathic Orthopedics Club.”