The spread of the pandemic Coronavirus has begun to impact the United States in ways that are new and scary to many of us. Having just celebrated my 61st birthday, and only months away from the 5 year anniversary of my “cancer free” status I am in one of the high risk groups for this virus as is my youngest daughter, who is pregnant with her third child.
In doing some research in this virus, I identified a number of articles that helped answer the three main questions I had regarding the Coronavirus:
What is the Coronavirus and what should we expect from this pandemic?
What are the most effective methods of social distancing to avoid infection?
Should I run during this pandemic and, if so, what precautions should I take?
Luckily, I found a number of great articles that pushed past the hysteria and politization of the topic and provided me the necessary guidance and we wanted to share these with you. With that said, I recommend you do your own research as well and find your comfort spot dealing with this pandemic as a person and a runner.
What is the Coronavirus and what should we expect from this pandemic?
It was fairly difficult finding an article that was in plain English, allowing the layman to understand and still provided the necessary medical and statistical information to answer this question. Below is a great article from Vox.com regarding the Coronavirus; what it is, and what we can expect.
What are the most effective methods of social distancing to avoid infection?
Every now and then, a new term comes up that I’ve not been aware of and “social distancing” is one of them; it seems like a pretty simple term, but every time I looked into it people were using it differently. Here are two articles from Forbes and MIT Technology Review, that should help you establish some parameters around social distancing.
Should I run during this pandemic and, if so, what precautions should I take?
As a runner, this one was a bit more frustrating to research as I had a lot of questions. Should I stop running? Should I not run in a race (on the off chance it hadn’t been cancelled)? Should I run in my running group? Can I run on the treadmill at the gym? Can I cross train or strength train on other equipment at the gym? Here are a few articles, from Runner’s World and PodiumRunner which I felt gave the best perspective on running during this pandemic.
I hope these help you, not just as runners but as people.
Be Safe!
Rich Flaherty is a middle of the pack runner and triathlete, whose only real claim to fame is his daughter Bekah Brooks qualified for the Boston Marathon in her first marathon.