Running in the time of Covid

This has been a year of disruptions, and one is to running.

Races and formal runs that might have served as milestones and motivations  have been cancelled, and runs with our local group have had to be suspended at times because of lockdown rules, but in the main, to some extent, I and others have kept running, more or less. Running has implications for general fitness, health and mental welbeing so is important in that respect, though for someone like me who runs for fun I can't say it is essential. The biggest impact for me is social: our run group has been meeting every Saturday for years, and after-run coffee has become a stable part of our lives and a weekly chance to catch up with friends, so we all miss that. But there is also a nice aspect, in an odd way, due to the social distancing.

Running can be a bit of a selfish pursuit: I am guilty of it myself sometimes, running in a bubble, oblivious to people I see or pass, on a mission, focussed on my pace or my style or my exhaustion. I don't wear headphones, so I don't run in a completely isolated bubble, but it still easy to forget the world and get absorbed in the run. In Covid times of social distancing, curiously, that isolation is less: because to social distance one must be aware of other people, let them pass or be grateful to them for letting me by. It's not as intrusive as meeting someone - you don't have to interrupt your run to stop and chat, but standing aside or thanking them for having done so offers a moment of polite - but distant - acknowledgment, a distant social contact, that I quite like. It reminds me of a time - perhaps mythical - when British people would acknowledge each other at a distance, both physically and emotionally - a nod of the head, perhaps as far as a smile, maybe a mumbled 'morning' - but it didn't interrupt the course of whatever one was doing, or where one was going - a simple acknowledgement, a moment of politeness, without too much fuss. In modern England - at least down here in the soft underbelly of the south - we are much more sociable than we were: we stop and chat, greet each other cheerily, ask abou teach other in meaningful ways that invite a meaningful response. But those interactions are not all of them, and I think in some ways we ignore others - we pass people we don't know without acknowledgement, we brush past people when the path is confined, politely enough but without saying anything - a lot of things have become a bit of a hurry, there isn't time to talk to everyone we might pass, we have places to go and things to do.

Social distancing makes each interaction require acknowledgement: to stop and stand aside you have to acknowledge the others, and they you, it is no longer acceptable to squeeze past without apology - some runners do, obviously, and it irritates me more hthan it used to in these days when no-one should brush past anyone - but it is unusual. We have all become a bit more considerate, a bit more thoughtful: but in a socially distant way. I like that.