Last week I discussed reasons I have quit running over the years and the confidence I have that I will get back to it. One of those reasons was that my family and I caught the COVID virus and shut down for a couple of weeks. I have seen some people’s experiences concerning COVID and realized that, while mine is similar in many ways, there are some differences that may help people going through it understand what to expect.
Of the 5 of us living in at home, 3 are runners. I started several years ago and progressed up to marathons and ultra marathons and spent most weekends out running 20 miles or more on the trails. I built up a pretty solid base and, although my conditioning faded in the last couple of years, I still had pretty decent conditioning over all. My wife started running with me and, in recent months ran more consistently up to 5 miles and had a solid base as well. My 16 year old son, Sean, joined the cross country team at school and was running consistently as well. My 16 year old daughter has been involved with dance and maintained a high level of conditioning also. My 19 year old daughter thinks of running as punishment, but she will exercise occasionally. I have a tendency to get a bad flu and/or pneumonia during the season, but have not since I started running regularly. Even though I had stopped running for several months after my train wreck, I had begun training for a marathon to run one year after the accident. The point being that we are a fairly healthy family. We had been staying home, socially distancing to the point of near isolation, and wearing masks out in public as recommended. Except…
It was Friday, October 16 that I went over to help a friend with a remodel job he was doing. There were three of us there, plus his daughter and son in law, the homeowners. At the same time, the wives were all together at another house. As far as I am aware, all of us have been doing all the things that the doctors say we should do to flatten the curve and slow the spread.
Sunday I went for a 16 mile trail run and noticed my sinuses closed up and my nose started running like a faucet. I assumed it was allergies. Monday morning I had a slight sore throat that seemed like typical post nasal drip from allergies. Later that week, both of my friends, their wives, and the homeowners started having symptoms as well. Some had low grade fevers. One was sent home from work with a higher fever. My wife developed a fever and had some body aches. My friend, who is immune deficient, started having difficulty breathing and went to a clinic a couple times. Thinking it was allergies, he attempted to work through it (he works socially distanced), but couldn’t and it set him back. Honestly, we were all pretty scared for him.
Originally, I did not intend to get tested. My thinking was that, if I had it, I would quarantine and get better, so I planned to act as if I did. One of my daughters needed a test for work purposes and all of my friends had tested positive (except for the one with the fever, go figure). Suddenly, and I mean like someone flipped a switch, my senses of smell and taste disappeared. By the time I got tested and got my results back, it had already been beyond my 10 day isolation. My 16 year old daughter tested positive, as did my wife. My wife and I had mild symptoms. She had a fever, I did not. My daughter had no symptoms at all. My wife was working from home and, except for increasing the nap breaks, she continued to do so. My 19 year old daughter works as a sub in a day care, so she took two weeks off. She came down with mild symptoms the same time as my son. He stayed home from cross country for two weeks and her two weeks off became three (she still has not gone back to work – its been 5 weeks for her). My 16 year old daughter has just returned to work this week.
Back to the running recovery…
My symptoms were fairly mild by comparison. Sore throat. Headache. Coughing, sneezing. Mostly, I was really, really tired. After all the other symptoms were gone (except the residual cough and the loss of taste and smell – which seem to be returning, gradually) I was still tired and lacked motivation. My wife would ask me to go for a run and I would decline. My son was back running with his team and I was sleeping until 10 and taking a nap in the afternoon. The first time I felt I could do anything was three weeks after symptoms. I “ran” 1.6 miles. Four days later I mustered a 3 mile bike ride to Starbucks. Four days after that I slogged 5 miles on the trail at 13 min/mile. Five days later I managed 3.5 miles at a decent 11:41 (for me) pace. Finally, today I ran 5 miles on the trail again at 12:36 average. For the first time since COVID, I was able to run without getting winded. Now my conditioning has suffered, but I think my base will pull me back fairly quickly.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my original plan was to run a marathon one year after my accident. Fortunately, that was cancelled because I was not recovered enough to do that. My back up was to run the California International Marathon in December. Also cancelled. I would not be ready for that because of COVID.
Truth be told, this has forced me to slow down. I have to accept that my body needs more time to recover. I need to let myself heal at a pace that is not dictated by me, but rather, by the physical and emotional need my body and mind will determine. These things are completely outside my locus of control. What is in my locus of control is to get up and do whatever I am capable of doing each day… and to forgive myself for falling short of my expectations. I’v always wanted to “run free.” I got this tattoo to remind myself of that several years ago. I guess it was more of a goal than a motto. I haven’t achieved it yet. Sometimes we have to realize how little control we actually have over circumstances and situations in order to let go. What we do have control over is our reaction to those circumstances and situations. We need to embrace that.
