Raymond Braun: “Triathlon was part of my OCD recovery”

Raymond Braun is a journalist, producer, and community advocate living in Los Angeles. Alongside his work, he dedicates his time to mental health awareness and other social impact causes, such as making fitness more inclusive and accessible and sharing stories to encourage and uplift others.

Raymond on his sporting background…

I didn’t really have a relationship with sport growing up. As a kid, I didn’t have great hand-eye coordination, was kind of lanky and awkward. I got teased for being gay before I even knew I was gay myself. The first time I really stepped foot in a gym was in my mid-20s.

Raymond on his OCD…

I got involved in triathlon as part of something called exposure therapy, which was part of my OCD recovery programme. For me, the OCD was related to pandemics, germs, contamination, freak accidents and mortality.

I’ve had OCD since I was a kid and it had a big impact on my life. When the pandemic hit, it was like all my worst fears coming true, because things that I’d been doing and was being told weren’t rational were all of a sudden being normalised.

Then my best friend Maya was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It took my compulsions to a heightened level where I didn’t leave my apartment for several months.

When I entered the recovery programme, we said let’s think of something that will be motivating, that will bring you into a community, but that will also represent all of your irrational fears. We came up with the triathlon.

Raymond on triathlon…

The very first triathlon I did was the Santa Barbara Sprint in 2021. It’s an incredibly short beginner course, but you’d have thought I was doing an Ironman.

I carb loaded, I tapered, hardly slept the night before and it was a 40-minute race. I was so excited. It was a big milestone and Maya was still alive at that time. She wasn’t able to be there, but she was so thrilled.

Raymond on his epic triathlon challenge…

I heard about the World Marathon Challenge [seven marathons on the seven different continents in seven days] and I just became completely transfixed by it. I thought, I wonder if anyone’s done this as a triathlon? I wanted to do something that would physically demonstrate the power of investing in therapy.

We did our first triathlon in Novo, Antarctica. Then we went to Cape Town, Perth, Dubai, Madrid, Fortaleza (Brazil), and ended in Miami. Being able to do anything in Antarctica was an honour. It was the high and the low, for sure.

I’d prepared to do a frozen-water swim, but at the last minute I had to switch to skis because the lake was completely frozen over. Then I was biking on pure ice, so the amount of times I fell… I thought I had a concussion, I was bleeding, it was gnarly.

When I got to Cape Town I donated my thermal wetsuit to the Cape Town Triathlon Club but I hadn’t realised that it was winter in Madrid and the water was about 4°C. It was freezing, there was ice in it, and I only had a regular wetsuit.

Raymond on the physical challenges…

That was the most physically challenging part. I got hypothermia and the guy who was swimming with me had to tap out halfway through.

In Brazil, I got some kind of stomach virus or flu, was having GI issues at both ends for the entire race and it was pouring rain. There were a lot of moments like that, but I think so much of it is about the mindset and belief you can do it.

Raymond on he coped with the challenge…

Thinking about what I’d learned through Calm, what I’d learned through therapy and all of my mindfulness techniques is what got me through.

I think it’s similar to other addictions or compulsions like alcoholism, where you don’t ever say you’re cured of it, but I would say I’m in full recovery.

I never thought I’d be talking about diarrhoea on national television or sharing details about my compulsions, but I’ve noticed that as I’ve been more open, it’s just taken a lot of the shame and stigma away from it.

With thanks to sleep and meditation app Calm for arranging this interview with Raymond.

Top image credit: Chris Joubert