‘I’m putting myself out there for this’: Outer Banks woman takes on 100-mile run for suicide awareness, prevention

Trista Spencer runs the Killer Dunes 2-mile event at Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head on July 4, 2025. She will embark on a 100-mile run from Corolla to Hatteras this weekend, raising awareness and funds for suicide prevention. (Photo courtesy Trista Spencer)

By Corinne Saunders

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NAGS HEAD — Shortly over a year after a Nags Head resident began running, she is taking on her longest run yet this weekend, 100 miles from Corolla to Hatteras, raising money and awareness for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in honor of her brother.

“I have a handful of friends who believe in me so hard that they’re gonna carry me there,” Trista Spencer, 28, told Outer Banks Insider.

She’s participating in the Blackbeard’s Revenge 100 Ultra & Relay—an ultramarathon that begins on Saturday and ends on Sunday. Team options exist, but Spencer will run all 100 miles from Historic Corolla Park to The Wreck Tiki Bar in Hatteras herself.

This race, like the Chicago Marathon she plans to run in October, is dedicated to the memory of her older brother, Michael Berger, who died by suicide eight years ago this month.

Sports events are an appropriate route, she noted, because “he was an athlete in the truest sense—not just in talent, but in discipline.”

On a family trip to Walt Disney World when they were kids, she recalled watching him run in the Florida heat wearing a trash bag to drop weight for wrestling.

“At the time, I thought it was ridiculous,” she wrote on her fundraising page. “Now, I understand it was devotion.”

Spencer grew up with three brothers, of which, Berger—often called by his last name or its shortened form, “Berg,” in athletics—was the oldest.

“He was very much like the leader type for our family,” she said. “I would say, very much like the epitome of what a big brother should be…he did all of the big brother things.”

She recalled him paying the way for a siblings’ vacation to the Outer Banks, which holds a special place in their family history.

Their mom, who hails from Pennsylvania, met their dad, whose family is from Hyde County, at Kelly’s Outer Banks Restaurant & Tavern in Nags Head—an iconic local nightlife spot for decades before its 2017 permanent closure.

“I actually live in the neighborhood behind Kelly’s now, so it’s just really weird; it’s like I’ve come full circle,” she quipped.

She said she began running in January 2025 after getting engaged, motivated by wanting to be fit for her wedding.

“But then I started doing it, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is like healing me,’” she said.

Spencer said she has learned a lot about herself through running, including just how capable she is and how to not avoid discomfort but to live with it, and despite it.

“Everybody’s always told me that I don’t know how to do things…incrementally; it has to be like all or nothing,” she said with a smile.

She said she previously struggled with binge drinking, oversleeping and other behaviors to avoid feeling negative feelings. Running gave her confidence, helping her realize how much time she actually had in a day and just how much she could accomplish.

“I think that especially with the way things are these days, we’ve found so many ways to like escape discomfort,” she mused. “What running has done for me is you have to sit and be in the discomfort, and then learn that you can like survive it anyway.”

She continued, “I’ve learned that I can deal with things that suck really bad for really long periods of time—hopefully 30 hours to be exact, after next weekend. It’s made me a completely different person.”

She now encourages everyone she can to start running.

“I’m like, ‘I know it sucks, but afterwards…the quietest my mind has ever been is after a long run,’” she said.

She took a solo weeklong trip to Disney for her 28th birthday, participating in a run and journaling a lot, as she found it strange to reach an age her brother never saw.

“From now on, when I think of him as my big brother and the memory of him, like, it’s somebody younger than me,” she said. “It’s just heavy.”

She expects the 100-mile run to be quality “moving meditation.” She and her race crew will have memorial T-shirts featuring a photo of her and Berger from when they were kids and the words, “Her biggest cheerleader.” She expects her dad, her fiancé and other family members to meet her at the finish line. A core group of her friends will cheer her on at multiple points en route.

A prevalent local issue

The Dare County Department of Health & Human Services in Manteo (File photo by Corinne Saunders)

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

In Dare County, it’s even more prevalent.

Suicide is the No. 9 cause of death in Dare County, according to the “2024-25 Dare County Community Health Needs Assessment.”

Even as the rates of death by suicide have decreased in Dare County since 2013, the county’s rate remains higher than the state’s rate, according to the report.

Suicide was Dare County’s No. 2 cause of death among people aged 20-34, according to report, which cited data from 2012-2022.

This finding prompted a study of suicide in Dare County conducted by the Breaking Through Task Force and Dare County Department of Health & Human Services, in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“The project highlights the need for increased mental health resources, support and awareness to combat stigma and improve community well-being,” according to the 2024-25 report’s Appendix 9. “Additionally, implementing targeted interventions to address financial, transportation and cultural barriers will be crucial for enhancing access to mental health services.”

State data for the most recent available year, 2023, recorded eight deaths by suicide in Currituck County, eight in Dare County and one in Hyde County.

Nationally, 49,316 people died by suicide in 2023, with white men accounting for over 68% of those deaths, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Spencer’s brother died in Pennsylvania. But she said that she’s found as she has opened up about her loss locally, many community members have responded with their own stories.

She manages Kraken’s Keep Cards & Games Store in Kitty Hawk and noted that people with such niche hobbies may tend to be isolated.

“I’ve run into, a lot, where people that I talked to, that come to the store, [say], ‘I’ve had these thoughts before;’ like, ‘You know, I’ve attempted before,’” she said.

She opined that men in particular deal with “emotional gatekeeping” where societal norms demand they not feel that way or talk about feeling that way.

“It is an epidemic of males not having the support and not knowing how to get the support and how to have those conversations,” she said. “Whenever people at the store, especially males, approach me with like, ‘This is my story,’ I like embrace that with like the utmost care because I’m like, you are doing something that like statistically such a small percent of men is comfortable doing.”

She added, “I see it as the opposite of what society wants us to see it as. I think it’s huge. I think it’s the bravest thing that somebody can do.”

She noted that while the common advice of checking on your friends is important, losing someone to suicide is not the fault of loved ones.

“There are always going to be things you don’t know about and that people aren’t going to be comfortable sharing,” she said. “You can be there for people, but it’s important not to put the weight and blame and responsibility on yourself.”

She looks forward to continuing to fundraise and spread awareness, in memory of her brother.

For the Chicago Marathon, “you have a choice of either learning how to run like 5 minutes per mile to get in or you can raise a bunch of money for charity,” Spencer said. “A lot of people like look down on that, but I think that it’s awesome…you get an opportunity to do what a lot of people don’t do. In the meantime, you get to raise money for a good cause.”

Spencer’s fundraising goal for the Chicago Marathon is $3,700, of which she has already raised $700. She said she welcomes online donations through her fundraising page or in-person donations through a box set up at Kraken’s Keep.

Last month, Spencer ran the Queen Anne’s Revenge Ultra in Greenville.

“It was cool that Queen Anne’s Revenge was the training run for Blackbeard’s Revenge,” she opined.

Other runners in that 50K—a course consisting of five laps of 6.2 miles—told her they found her inspirational, with her consistent smile and the glitter she wore.

“That felt good,” she recalled. “It almost felt like a race persona came out, where it’s like, alright…we’re going to bring the energy.”

She stressed the importance of the upcoming race for suicide awareness and prevention.

“I know it’s [the Chicago Marathon is] still like a big-name race but it’s not like, ‘Oh I’m doing 100 miles,’” she noted. “This is just kind of the way to get everybody’s attention of like, look! I’m putting myself out there for this.”

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