What is BTHO Week, you ask?

This event was born a couple of years ago during a retreat I was leading with a group of athletes. We were talking about our opponent at the Jae Foundation. In sports, you scout your opponent, build a game plan, and step onto the field ready to win. For us, the opponent is suicide.

I shared with them the story of my good friend, Charlie Williams, in College Station, Texas, who lost his son Blake to suicide. In that moment of collaboration—after hearing Charlie’s story—we stood together and said: We need an event to Beat the Hell Out of Suicide.

And BTHO Week was born.

Over the course of four days—September 17th through 20th—we will run “suicide sprints,” but we’ve changed the name. We now call them BTHOs. Instead of comparing a sprint to suicide, we chose to flip the narrative: the difficulty of the sprint now represents our collective fight to Beat the Hell Out of Suicide.

Our community has committed to running (or walking) 50,000 BTHOs in those four days. That number isn’t random—it represents the 50,000 lives lost to suicide every year in the United States. Nearly six people per hour lose their life this way. That’s six families every single hour who are left with unthinkable pain.

BTHO Week is our stand against that opponent.

The event will be held at Jae’s Place and will be full of music, energy, food, and most importantly—community. Together, we will run, cheer, and remember that this fight is bigger than all of us, but not too big for all of us.

Please check out our website and social media for more details on how you can get involved.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and together we can Beat the Hell Out of Suicide! 

It’s Boot-Check Time!