Whether you identify as a runner or not, the societal and political shifts caused by COVID-19 have likely derailed your plans for the foreseeable future. If that is the case, then this article is for you! Even though I will be talking about my training over the past eight months in this post, the message I want to spread is broader. First and foremost, we all have our marathons. While these marathons sometimes entail the literal 42.2km, getting into shape, vying for a promotion at work, or raising children can be just as (or more) demanding. As such, no matter what your long-term goals were, they undoubtedly required some sacrifices and seeing them fall through is hard to watch. While these next few months may not be ideal, there are many lessons that we can learn from this situation. In this post, I will share one piece of wisdom that this experience has given me.
For myself, these last three months of training for my first 50 km race have been extremely difficult. On December 14th, I could easily run a full marathon. By the end of January, 20 km felt unattainable. After two weeks of active rest during the holidays, I succumbed to what was, to no exaggeration, one of the worst colds of my life. Even after spending two years missing weeks of school for tonsillitis, I was not prepared for how I would feel by the third day of this bug. My ribs hadn’t hurt this much since they subluxated after a Summer of tree planting. It took me two weeks from the onset of symptoms to attempt running again. Having missed over a month of proper training by this point, I pushed my mileage too quickly and injured my foot, then my knee, and then my hip. In addition to the physical wear and tear that my body experienced, running in the rain, under the pitch-dark sky, with no friends for support made each run feel all the more punishing.
Despite the challenges, knowing that I would be capable of running this 50k kept me optimistic. While I knew that I would most definitely still run without a race, the pressure to achieve adequate weekly mileage started to dictate my life. In the great scheme of everything, I knew that this discomfort was short term and that the payoff from finishing what I started would last much longer. On my runs, I would fantasize about the camaraderie I would enjoy with other finishers, the pride I would experience for persevering, and the confidence I would gain in my abilities. These images were not only my fuel, but they represented warmth at the end of a very wet tunnel.
When I heard that the race would be postponed, I felt a mixture of emotions. What surprised me the most was how easily I accepted the change. The race was moved from April to October and, for work reasons, I won't be able to keep training. If I knew with complete certainty that this would happen, I wouldn't have made the same sacrifices. I would have let my body recover fully before pushing myself again. So why wasn't I upset? I had been dreaming about running long distances all throughout university. After spending years helping other people achieve athletic success, I was hungry to experience it for myself. I should have been upset, but I wasn’t. My prevailing thought was that I had already accomplished the bulk of what I set out to do.
As we all know, no matter the goal, the outcome is mostly influenced by small, daily actions. And, unsurprisingly, these small actions are not always easy. Sometimes, you will have to run alone in the rain; sometimes, your plans will derail; and sometimes you will wish that you could stop. Deciding to commit in these times is entirely personal. There is no clear cut right or wrong answer. While I enjoy the social and exploratory aspects of running, what I love most is how every training program helps me grow. Training for various athletic pursuits has allowed me to explore pain in a safe space. Over time, this exploration has helped me feel comfortable being uncomfortable. Running in those latter months of my program allowed me to look inside myself and overcome other stressors in my life. It allowed me to learn more about who I was as a strong, independent young woman. All I had to do was lace up my shoes and walk out the door.
COVID-19 has derailed many of our plans. Things that you were looking forward to may not come to fruition. That is ok. We are all in this ship together. While we may not have control over what happens to us, especially not right now, we all still have enough agency to learn. Chances are that if you were working up to something before the world shut down, your daily efforts already made you a better person. With or without coronavirus, we tend to neglect the little actions we perform regularly that make us awesome. Now, more than ever, we need to focus on what those actions are. While races and social events are excellent because they provide concrete milestones, they are by no means what define you.