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."