Photo by Fitsum Admasu on Unsplash
After the scorching bank holiday weekend, I’ve realised that I might never have spent so much of my regular time outdoors as during the lockdown. In the last couple of months I’ve taken to running, walking, cycling and even just sitting outside as much as possible, often for a couple of hours a day. And I’m not the only one, as one obvious early result of the international restrictions, isolation measures and health warnings was that people were taking any and every opportunity to get outside and look after their health.
Judging by numbers on the streets and stories in the media, the situation has inspired lots of people to either take up walking and running or get back in touch with it, giving people both the chance to escape their homes and to improve their own health and immune function. And many like myself have come out of the winter ready to move our training outdoors again – briefly forced back in by concerns about the pandemic, but granted the temporary daily release of exercising outside our homes and taking it with both hands.
A couple of weeks into the lockdown a friend posted in our Whatsapp group that he’d gone for his first ever run, and was now exhausted, satisfied, but ultimately still on the fence about how he felt about it, and unsure if he’d necessarily ever bother doing it again.
“Fair enough”, I thought as I offered some praise and encouragement, realising it’s so long since I’ve thought of running as a chore that it never occurs to me that it’d affect my mood negatively.
The message set off a wave of conversation and messaging about running and as it turned out, a lot of our group had been using their current change of schedule and lifestyle to dedicate more time to running, some running every day if possible. Even after years of practice, often running myself into the ground when training for something, I forget that you can of course run every day if you want to. It might be good to slow down or adjust your routine a bit to accommodate but it’s entirely possible. Sometimes it just takes someone telling you they’re doing something for you to realise that you can do it too.
I’d been enjoying the one or two longer runs I was doing a week, so it was the lightbulb I kind of needed to remind me that I could do it more if I wanted. You just need to listen to your body really. The gym had kept me going through the long dark winter, with running relegated to every couple of weeks, because, like most people, my normal response when I look out the window at the rain and the wind and the long dark nights is “Fuck that.”
I’d probably had enough of the gym over the winter, my attitude to it being that although it can be fun in itself, it’s a means to an end to make me fit and healthy enough to do other things I’m into. The silver lining of the closures (from a personal point of view) is the freeing up of my limited time and physical resources for more running, as with fortunate timing we hurried through spring this year and have had in its place the longest summer in recent memory, the weather only getting hotter in recent weeks. Better to get outside and make hay while the sun’s there, as one of the misfortunes of life in the land of saints and scholars is that every fine day could be the last one of the year, whether it’s January or August.
Bring on those great outdoors. Photo by asoggetti on Unsplash
It does force a “make the most of today” attitude in us when the sun does appear, which is too often missing from our mindsets these days, and hopefully something we learn from this situation. What would you have done in January or February if you’d known that come March you’d be stuck at home for the foreseeable future? What would you do today if you knew it was the last fine day of the year? You might go outside and enjoy it.
Next thing a Whatsapp group was set up – a couple of the lads had been engaging in a friendly contest to see who can break a twenty-minute 5 kilometre run and then kindly let me into it. Game on.
I’d done a few parkruns last summer at home in Mayo, eventually growing tired of the distance, frustrated that no matter how hard or well it seemed like I was running – or how badly – I kept coming in at the same time every week, strangely almost to the second. Five kilometres at a more-or-less flat-out pace is a lonely distance – I’m usually gassed after the first two, and it’s tough knowing you’re not quite at halfway yet – and much of it is spent as a mental battle trying to override your lungs, your legs, and the thoughts of the clock and everyone else running around you.
It’s following those runs I understand why people see the whole experience as a chore. Maybe part of the problem is feeling like I’ve to run flat out, or maybe running yourself to exhaustion isn’t the way to run if you want to maximise the mental benefits of it.
Physically or mentally, exhausting yourself probably isn’t the right way to go about things.
And yet,
here I am again. The social side of parkruns is the reason for their success all over the world. It’s what lifts your spirits when you’re standing wheezing at the finish line with your hands on your knees, gasping for air.
And now the Whatsapp group has added an extra dimension to my own running, making me do things and keeping me motivated in ways I’d never have been able to alone. Our running has become more social even in socially distant times, and even though its members live in different corners of the country.
Screenshots of split times and GPS route maps are posted and discussed. Training strategies are devised (and shared of course – we’re all friends after all) and brutal sprint sessions are now looked forward to (sometimes) as we’ve figured out a way to bring added meaning to our improvements in spite of the isolation, and the inherent loneliness of middle distance running. The group has grown in number as fellow running friends have been added.
There’s only so much fast running you can (or should) do, and our list of goals has branched out from the gruelling 5kms to include other targets, challenges and awards. One of the lads has gotten out 10 days in a row, partly because he loves the running and I suspect partly because it gets him out of the house for a bit of peace for a small part of the day. Another, Emmet (who has a full head of hair), his sub-twenty 5km safely in the bag, has expanded his sights and is pushing past half marathon distances around his lockdown bubble in the west of Ireland.
My last attempt at the sub-twenty was bittersweet – I took twenty seconds off my PB; only twenty more to go to break the socially-determined line between glory and failure – but a strange gale-force wind inexplicably blowing in all directions thwarted my movements, and shattered my confidence. Sure it’s just another training session. Already on the way home I couldn’t wait for the next one, sensing the end to this particular running journey in my sights.
A few days later I cut my foot walking barefoot. It’s slowly healing but I’ve been out of action for the week. An annoyance, but maybe one of those things that forces you to stop and take a break sometimes, like the gyms closing. You have to pause for a moment and see what else you can do.
You can always stop and take a breather if you want. Why are you running anyway? Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash
The group has grown beyond just an arbitrary challenge or a test of fitness and strength. Long trail runs are being planned for when the travel restrictions ease. We might train for an imaginary marathon together. Hikes and camping trips are being suggested. Pictures of post-run beers and the pros and cons of new remote-working setups and lifestyle changes are discussed.
I posted a picture of my gashed foot and sympathies were offered, perhaps my running buddies feeling the pain for me that bit more than anyone else might; they know how they’d feel if they’d to give it up at this moment in time, even for a week.
Pics are posted of new running shoes, special offers shared, books on running recommended and discussed, and pictures of sun-beaten and reddened faces reflecting the ridiculous spell of weather are shared for others’ amusement. As of writing this, I haven’t yet beaten the 5km challenge, though I have proudly claimed the award for the biggest post-run tomato head, my face always having been a fine conductor of exercise-induced body heat.
The group has been a great thing, and long may our support and friendly rivalry continue. May there be more records broken and distances run and tomato heads earned on hot weekday mornings before flexible working hours. And may the recent uptake in appreciation for our health, and for exercise and the outdoors, continue. Maybe this is the continuation of a cultural shift to the outdoors, to places that provide so much health, happiness and meaning that all of Ireland is blessed with – towns and cities included – the places on all our doorsteps that are so often overlooked.
Our group is part of a larger astro-football group who play once a week in Dublin. Often over the winter I turned down opportunities to join a game in favour of going for my own runs, preferring the comfort of routine to the effort of running after a ball for other people’s sake. But lately I’ve even been thinking about how much I’d love a game of football when we get the chance again, to share in the joys of running with others once again. Maybe the Whatsapp group has shown me again the other reasons to run than just for yourself. And like everyone else, this isolation has made me appreciate that much more both my own health and the opportunity to spend time with others.
Maybe social media isn’t so bad for you after all – it just depends on how you use it.