Much as I had predicted in last week’s writings, last week feels like a decade+ ago, and each week right now seems like it’s at least a year, maybe a couple years, long. (There’s research to support the claim that when you’re in the thick of something undesirable, time takes on new and paradoxical dimensions. Hat-tip to the Growth Equation newsletter for the link).

So what can I add to the ongoing, mildly dumpster-fire conversation about how COVID has upended all of our lives? My hot-take attempts: 

Races *should* be canceling, and no, they don’t owe you or me anything, including refunds or deferrals, at all. Races have a social, public health, and dare I say moral responsibility to be canceling right now — particularly if they were set to happen anytime in the next couple months — and I would surmise that even races set to occur in the autumn may not come to fruition. Hell, maybe this will be the year of no racing in the interest of the public good; who knows. As athletes, sure, it’s frustrating to train and work hard to race as fast and strong as we can, and it absolutely stinks that when races cancel, we don’t have anywhere “to put forth,” for lack of a better phrase, our fitness that we worked so hard to gain. (Related: Mountains to Beach Marathon finally announced their cancellation this week. A new date or plan hasn’t yet been announced).

Here’s the thing though: race directors are canceling their races because they’re following orders from county (or state, or national, or global) health authorities. It would be disastrous and irresponsible for the races to go forth as planned. I think most runners would agree with me that races shouldn’t be occurring right now or for the foreseeable future. 

Where my opinion isn’t shared with many, however, is that I am adamant that RDs who have to cancel (or postpone) their races don’t owe their runners anything. As I’ve seen more and more races having to cancel because of the pandemic, it seems like some runners are misdirecting their rage at RDs and think that they’re somehow entitled to a deferral or refund; worst yet, if RDs don’t offer their runners cash back, somehow those RDs are greedy or irresponsible or shitty at their jobs. I encourage runners who disagree with me to read these wonderful accounts from RDs. There is no money left to give you — unless you prefer that RDs/race organizations go bankrupt and there is no more (insert race of choice here) in 2021 or beyond. Many races are operated by very small teams or organizations or non-profits — not mega huge corporations — so it’s disingenuous to assume that RDs are secretly sitting on a pile of cash from all their runners. The cash is gone, friends. I think it’s that simple. For more on the subject:  

• https://humanpotentialrunning.com/from-the-rd/pandemics-mass-gatherings-and-the-challenges-of-rds/
• https://raceraves.com/what-to-expect-when-race-canceled/
• https://medium.com/@kirsten_8156/an-open-letter-to-my-run-community-from-the-home-desk-of-a-runner-and-canadian-race-director-1a6cbabe5731

Everyone’s stressed/nervous/whatever and (hopefully) has coping mechanisms to deal, but common sense and civility is still worth a damn. With California’s statewide Shelter-in-Place order, not a whole ton has changed in our day-to-day since last week. Fortunately, we are still allowed to run (or more generally, exercise outdoors), but the onus is on us, individually, to maintain the six-feet social distance radius. Janet and I have continued to run together a few times a week, at least six feet apart (it makes it hard to hear sometimes, but it’s easily rectifiable by repeating yourself a thousand times), typically early in the morning. 

The other day as we were vacating Alum Rock (*before 3/27, when the city closed the park indefinitely) around ~7am, we were running single-file on the path, on the correct side for outbound pedestrian traffic, and two older-adult hikers, using hiking poles, were on the same shared path as us entering the park. Janet and I couldn’t have been further away from these hikers — we would have been literally in the bushes — and frustratingly, instead of the hikers moving away from us (as we did from them), they stayed in the dead-center of the path and threw their poles up in the air, perpendicular from their bodies as Janet was passing them, screaming “SOCIAL DISTANCE!!!” Luckily, Janet didn’t get speared or otherwise become a human shish-kabob, but it was nonetheless baffling that somehow the hikers seemed to assert that we were wrong to pass them, single file, more than six feet away, and to “defend” themselves they instituted a hiking-pole radius around them. Literally taking two lateral steps in the opposite direction from us — just as we had done from them — would have sufficed.  

In other news, a couple days later as I was running on a major street here in town, also around the 7 o’clock hour, I was standing at a stoplight waiting to cross eastbound to head into the hills. While I was standing at the light, a gentleman in a red Camaro directly in front of me, heading south, caught my eye as he was making all manner of sexually suggestive motions my way. I didn’t give him the time of day — just another dumbshit who obviously gets a thrill out of harassing female runners — yet soon after his light turned green, he drove through the intersection, pulled a U-turn, and proceeded back my way. I was baffled — like this surely couldn’t be happening — yet indeed, the same guy went out of his way to turn his car around to again situate himself in front of me (as I was still waiting for the light to come on) to continue to making sexually suggestive motions in my direction. He very slowly drove northbound, and my heart stopped when he indicated he was going to turn; thankfully, he pulled into a side street and didn’t pay me a third visit. The entire time I ran east, for the next mile+, the image of the red Camaro and the dude were seared in my mind. 

I don’t typically talk about my experiences with dumb-shit motorists who harass me on the run because I can usually shake it off and just allow it amount to nothing. I think this experience was a little jarring simply because of the high-anxiety backdrop we’re all living in at the moment. We’re not supposed to run in large groups anymore, so does that mean by running solo (for our health and that of the world) we are potentially compromising our individual safety? 

The world may feel a little weird right now, and people are on high alert and worried that they or someone they love will fall victim to this insidious, microscopic virus … but rest assured that there are still dumbfucks out there who will go out of their way to harass people simply because they can. Ugh. On that note, mere days into this COVID-19-induced SIP I noticed that people were still spray-paint graffiting penises on sound walls in my part of the city; maybe some people’s coping mechanisms are simply superior to others’. 

Another reading recommendation to help you remember pre-COVID life: While coronavirus is scary and unknown and somewhat all-consuming right now, sometimes it’s hard to remember that there was a shitstorm of bad stuff going on in our lives before all of this erupted. I recently finished Nick Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn’s new book, Tightrope, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s not exactly fun reading — par for the course for most topics of theirs — but it’s important that we remember a huge segment of society whose lives will be/are being even more upended when all of this coronavirus stuff is behind us. (I felt gutted when I read Nick’s recent column this week that said the last Knapp child just died of an overdose).

Keep hangin’ and say thank you. Last thing — and a proud mom moment. My siblings are in health care, and I’ve talked with my girls about how we’re all staying home right now so that lots of people won’t get needlessly sick and perhaps die. I’ve also explained, as best I can, that only certain places are open — the super important stores and facilities — to also minimize risk and exposure. In the past week I had to drop-off items to the post office, and my eldest insisted that I wait 20 minutes so that she and her sister could make signs for the workers. I dropped-off the finished products, and the next time I had to return, I noticed the PO employees had hung them up. Thank you to all of our many essential employees right now, both near and far. 

Take care, stay safe, and be well. xo