Running gives happiness... and we show it to you!

Meet three women who have overcome very hard times thanks to sport and who encourage you to be part of the #SmileyRunning movement, with which Sprinter and Nike Pegasus are committed to small changes to improve your life.

Rafa Nadal, Carolina Marín, Luka Doncic, Leo Messi, Teresa Perales... they sound familiar to you, right? The media will continue to talk about them for a long time, but sometimes it is necessary to tell stories of anonymous people whose lives have been completely transformed by sport.

Two greats in the sector, Sprinter and Nike Pegasus38 , have joined forces to promote the fabulous #SmileyRunning initiative , which is committed to happiness through exercise, healthy eating and meditation. Plus, we've been introduced to three extraordinary women whose lives were saved by running . Read the testimony of Maricarmen, Judith and Mar. They have a lot to teach us all.

Maricarmen: “ If you are going through a complicated situation, run ”.

This blonde and always smiling woman is a nurse, has three children and an athlete husband. Her plans were to continue like this, calm, until she retired, but macular degeneration was reducing her sight. At first she did not give importance to “ seeing a little worse ” , but soon she had to stop working: “ I entered a kind of depression and in order not to sink, I went running. I knew it would help me not to think about the problems ” . She began with short, popular races, she signed up for the ONCE and was federated to access the Spanish championships. “ Now I have a marathon mark that is a world record! ” , she says proudly.

She also enjoys sports on weekends with her husband, her best guide, and with the friends she has found on this new path: “ Running has allowed me to meet a lot of people. In the end, the forced change has turned out to be an opportunity. This is more positive than having continued with a routine life at home” . With a gesture of satisfaction, Maricarmen says goodbye with some advice: “ If someone is going through a complicated situation, I encourage them to run and, little by little, things will fall into place ” .

Mar: "Everyone should take a little while to disconnect doing sports."

She was born with a congenital heart defect and underwent surgery at the age of six. For many, this can be synonymous with a sedentary lifestyle and little effort. For Mar, almost the opposite. “ It is true that as a child I was afraid of sports because I fainted once and, in high school, I was directly exempt from gymnastics , ” she says. At the age of 24, she had to undergo surgery again to put a valve with which she felt “ a little more energy ”, and she took advantage of it to move more. She refused to spend the day on a sofa.

One day Mar decided to run for a few minutes: “It was great and, little by little, I got better until I got high when I managed to finish a ten kilometer race ” . She is not, nor does she pretend to be, a professional, but we can almost describe her as a sports coach because she encourages everyone who crosses her path to practice it: “ I have helped friends who also have ailments to get rid of their fear because, as my doctor says, this goes well for the heart within the limits that each one can ” .

Since her daughter was born her priorities have changed, but she always leaves a little space for sports to disconnect: “ I notice that it helps me and I think that everyone should have a little time to feel as good as I do” .

Judith: “ Running is my way of releasing emotions”.

The first blow Judit received was growing up in a family of runners and not being able to do it. "Throughout my life I have had knee surgery several times and they advised against it," she recalls. She obediently, she just walked and walked until when she reached her forties “ I felt very tired and they told me it could be fibromyalgia ”. She got fed up with ailments and one day, almost in secret, she dared to run 20 meters. “I felt great. So I did a little more and more...” , she confesses and thus ended her illness. “ At first she felt discomfort in her knees, but they got used to it and they stopped hurting me” .

Training also 'cured' her loneliness: “Now I have a group of friends who run and I met my partner seven years ago on Corredores.cat ” . However, fate is capricious and two months ago Judith was diagnosed with breast cancer: “I had surgery and, to be honest, I was looking forward to having my stitches removed so I could go running. It's my way of releasing emotions. That's why when someone tells me " I can't ", I answer: “ you can, faster or slower, but you can ” .