Building a Wellness Community One Run and Post at a Time

Whether it’s creating motivational videos on her wellness Instagram, running with her friends at ElonRUNS or working with her dream brand deal, Lily Botten, a junior at Elon University, strives to be her authentic self in the opportunities she’s given. 

From traveling to Barbados in a January term, completing her Core Capstone in Peru this November, to going to Australia the second semester of her junior year, Botten strives to understand business perspectives from around the world that she can bring to her own business someday, specifically to the fitness world. 

Botten has majors in entrepreneurship and finance with a minor in psychology. “If I could have a business degree combined with my love for fitness, that would be great,” Botten said, “[whether] that's my own company, or if that's working within another company.”

Having played sports all her life, including soccer and basketball, Botten’s passion for the fitness world took off after joining cross country and track in high school. 

“I really fell in love with running there,” Botten said. “I went through a couple injuries and mental health things, so I had to take some seasons off. I realized I really wanted to fight to get back to running. And actually, once I made the recovery, I came back to the top of the team.”

After coming to Elon and missing running everyday like she did in high school, Botten figured out she needed to do something for herself.

“So I made myself a goal,” Botten said. “I was like, I'm gonna run a half marathon, and then that quickly turned into, it's gonna be a marathon, and that turned into okay, it's gonna be an Ironman, and so it quickly progressed.”

After feeling isolated her freshman year, Botten decided to put herself out there more her sophomore year. It was then that she joined the ElonRUNS club.

“I love it because it's honestly a group of completely different people from completely different backgrounds,” Botten said. “People I would have never met regardless.

Now the President of ElonRUNS club, Botten has the chance to be outside with her friends, talk and listen to music with no pressure of time or racing goals. 

“That's my break,” Botten said. “It's where I see my friends. I definitely made my best friends through it, and that translated to outside of the run club too. It's not just [that] I met them in the run club, but now we hang out all the time.

After being injured badly in an accident last month, ElonRUNS showed up for Botten to support her and check in with her regularly. 

“They help me when I struggle with my mental health,” Botten said. “Everybody cares about you, and everybody wants to see each other thrive, and it's just boosting each other up.”

Photo credits: Lily Botten

As running can be a mental sport as well as a physical sport, this inspired Botten to create her own Instagram page @lilyblifestyle in 2023, when she was coming back to racing when she was at the tipping point of her recovery from an eating disorder.

“It started off as a very motivational page, like talking all about things that are healthy for you and ways to treat yourself better and motivational quotes,” Botten said. “So I really had a focus on mental health and much of that being fitness, but also like meditation and journaling and reading and spending time with your family.” 

As her account progressed, Botten got more into running races, leading to where it is now: an endurance training page along with lifestyle.

“It's like a balanced living type of page,” Botten said. “Now I've grown it, so I have the chance to work with some of my favorite brands and be able to do some cool things because of it, which is really awesome and not what I was going into it expecting.”

Currently working in a brand deal with Bare Performance Nutrition, Botten hopes to expand and work with more brands and to be able to race for them. 

“I think my biggest goal is to be paid to race and be paid to run,” Botten said. 

For her senior year and post-graduation, Botten plans to continue her Instagram page, showing people that it’s possible to train and chase your goals while balancing work, including a nine to five job. Knowing that she has an audience that feels inspired by her videos motivates her to help more people in her future.

“I've had so many people who I have no idea who they are come up to me at school here or back home,” Botten said. “They'll be like, ‘I saw your post on this. Like it helps me do this,’ or ‘I signed up for my first marathon because of this,’ and I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ So you may think that people are judging you, but if they're watching you, chances are they're watching you because they inspire, or you're inspiring them.”

How does Lily Botten inspire you? Let us know by commenting on our post or tagging @theedge on Instagram!

Thumbnail: Lily Botten