This Port Moody man is trying to run every day for one year. Again.

Outside his childhood home in Port Moody, Ben Wezeman laces up his sneakers and starts jogging up the hill. 

He runs past suburban houses, with backyards and driveways dotted with basketball hoops, and comes to a four way intersection on David Avenue. 

He takes a left turn and follows a series of rolling hills on a multi-use path. He then makes a right up to the Heritage Woods Secondary School running track, a 400-metre, six-lane track nestled in the forest of Heritage Mountain. 

On this mid-December day last winter, Wezeman, 25, jogs one lap and follows the same path home. The next day, he wakes up in the morning and jogs the same route. One day later, he does it again. 

And again, and again. He runs that route every day for the next two months. 

His favourite five-kilometre running route may only have a few turns, but Wezeman’s four-year journey to run 365 days in a row has had many twists.

In 2020, Wezeman, who grew up in Port Moody and attended Heritage Woods, made headlines for attempting to run every day for one year for cancer research. He ended up running 192 consecutive days — raising more than $2,100 — but had to cut the streak short due to a manic episode. 

“After my streak ended, I was quite devastated,” Wezeman says.

He spent nine days in the hospital and was eventually diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. 

(Prior to his hospitalization, I wrote a story about Wezeman’s first run streak for a now defunct outlet, The Pigeon. I later talked about our relationship, and mental health struggles as young men, in an essay for the New York Times).

For years after the run streak ended, his motivation to run ebbed and flowed with his schedule and mood. He ran occasionally. Wezeman tried training competitively with the Coquitlam Cheetahs track club, but was never able to develop a consistent running routine. 

On that winter day last December though, he caught a whiff on inspiration and was determined to start running again.

“I always wanted to complete the challenge,” he says. “I don’t know if it was from the universe, but I just had some raw inspiration to complete this challenge, the unfinished business I had.” 

Since launching the streak, “Mission 365,” in December, Wezeman has nearly reached the point where he dropped off last time — running at least 5km every day for 156 days, as of earlier this month. 

He has also raised nearly $1,000 for Mental Health Research Canada, a national organization that primarily relies on donations to conduct research projects and other mental health initiatives. 

He’s hoping to reach $3,650 by December — or $10 for each day he plans to run this year.

“It’s an opportunity to do something good for the community,” Wezeman says. “I want people to see that a regular guy can do something like this. . . . I have my struggles, my problems, my illness, but I’m not letting it define me.” 

Although he gets excited about raising money for social causes, Wezeman recognizes the streak also plays an important role in his life.

Going for a run every day gives him a dopamine hit, which he finds helps his mood and mental health. Every run, or “side mission,” as he calls them, gives him a routine and sense of accomplishment for the day — no matter whether he had a good or bad day. 

“It’s helping me stay more stable,” he says. “I’m not swinging down and up as much anymore.” 

But finding that stability is still a work in progress, he admits.

During his last streak, Wezeman says that his mood would get extremely high after every run. He’d post his accomplishments on Facebook, YouTube or the running app Strava and develop a bit of an ego, he said. 

He still posts the occasional update on social media, and is very open about his struggles with bipolar on his latest GoFundMe page, but Wezeman is trying to not let his mood be completely dictated by the streak.  

“I’m just trying to be balanced and stay humble,” he says. 

At the end of the day, Wezeman says he hopes his streak inspires other people — men in particular — to be vulnerable and not be afraid to seek help or talk to a close friend about their mental health.

Wezeman says being vulnerable in his own life has motivated people to reach out to him and explain how his story has helped their mental health. But it has also given him the confidence to be an authentic version of himself, one day at a time. 

“When I share and leave everything on the table, it sets me free,” Wezeman says.