Was it by yourself, or with others?

There I was, in the booth, confessing to the sin of having impure thoughts and actions. The priest would hit me with the follow-up question, "Was it by yourself, or with others?" My answer was, most unfortunately, always "by myself."

But of course, here I'm talking about running, which is in no way impure. And as I discuss the subject (running, not impure thoughts and actions) with my friends, it appears that some of them can't seem to run alone at all.

This used to strike me as a little bit strange. I used to run alone nearly all the time. It was mostly just Saturday mornings that were for running with friends. But then in recent years, it seemed as though I too had been running more and more with others - at least whenever possible. As a result, my group runs are invariably completed at a significantly better pace than my solo ones.

That is of course until the Coronavirus happened. Then social distancing became a thing. At first, my friends and I called it Social Distance Running and we continued to participate in group runs. It seemed harmless.

Too bad that Social Distance Running phase didn't last long. On March 23, Ohio became subject to a Stay at Home order from the governor. Now we could probably still run together as long as we stayed six feet apart, since outdoor exercise is allowed and even encouraged. Yet even this kind of running with a few friends seems to me to be contrary to the spirit, if not the letter of the new ruling.

So it's back to running alone. And again having to confess, "by myself."

Social Distance Running

Social distancing is the phrase du jour for just about every day now. And of course, COVID-19 is still the topic of conversation no matter where you go, running or not, these days. On this day, a day that I had been considering doing a 50K race that wound up canceled like the rest of them...

I wake up before the 3:30 AM alarm. My new Garmin 45 device tells me that 5 hours and 1 minute was not enough sleep. I knew that, thank you.

Good thing the coffee is ready. I need every ounce of those three large mugs. Today for a change I add some pumpkin and cinnamon. The 'Cutie' brand mandarins will also provide some energy for the ordeal to come.

By 4:40 AM, I'm packed, bundled up, and ready to run. Into the car, I go for the ride down to the Medina Square. There probably won't be much traffic.

There wasn't. It's 5:00 AM as Andy and Michelle Wolff and I begin our run from the Square. The Square, by the way, is pretty quiet as well. It usually is at this early hour. But more so these days. The same goes for the traffic along the run itself.

The temperature is in the mid-twenties, about forty degrees cooler than this time yesterday. The wind is bracing. And I didn't expect the snow. There isn't much, but there's definitely some.

I run with these folks all the time and we know each other well. Even so, I wonder if we ought to be keeping our distance from each other during the run itself. I decide to just stuff that thought into the back of my mind.

After about nine miles and an hour and a half, we're back at the Square. Andy and Michelle are done, but I would like to do more. A few more were supposed to join us at 6:30, but there's no one around.  I finally see Audrie Roush and Rouger, her dog, but no one else. So now with a new running partner, I take off from the Square once more.

This time we run the Medina Half Marathon course, or at least most of it, forward. Andy, Michelle and I had done it backward. One would think that after running this course a couple dozen times, doing it forward and backward, and even doing it as part of the race itself, that I'd know it by now. One would be wrong. Okay, I do know parts of it. But other parts still manage to baffle me. Not that that takes much these days.

The Garmin 45 tells me that I am running at about 9:45 pace. This is good for a long run these days. Especially after last week's debacle. The best part is that it's been pretty steady.

Audrie, Rouger, and I finish with another nine, and I'm happy to be able to call it a solid long run. Glad to have it done.

To complete 50K, I'd have had to do another 13. Oops. Should have quit thinking about the run whilst I was ahead.

The Topic of Conversation

Wherever you go, whatever you do, the coronavirus is the topic of conversation. It doesn't matter whether you know the person you're talking with, you certainly have at least some coronavirus-related closing in common. Take runners, for example.

We runners, when we get together, are no different. (See, we're people too.) We invariably talk about races, past, present, and most commonly, future. What are you registered for? What are you training for? You know the drill. These days, virtually every race, large, small, road, trail, silly, serious is getting canceled or postponed. At least the ones within a couple months.

Here's how coronavirus closings are affecting ME.

1) I was set to volunteer at the Buzzard runs yesterday. It was canceled just the day prior. I was off the hook.
2) I was just about to pull the trigger to register for the 50/50 (50K / 50 Mile) Brimstone race next Saturday. I now will not.
3) I have to hear about everyone else's changes of plans due to such cancelations and postponements.

Some additional information. A couple weeks ago, I was running fairly well and also a fair amount in terms of volume. I thought 50K, at least, was doable. Now that I've had some not-so-great long runs during recent tries, I'm not so confident. I don't know why I've slowed, but that good, solid month of Florida running seems to be going to the wayside. Maybe it's the Ohio climate.

And I really don't mind hearing other runners' stories (about their race cancelation woes).

I know they still put up with mine.