Last weekend I ran my third half marathon. It was honestly on a bit of a whim – I asked my friend Joanna if she wanted to run 13.1 miles with me, we picked a date a week in advance and there you have it.
Gearing up for a big run amidst a pandemic is a bit different!
Joanna picked our route, which ended up being around 1/3 to 1/2 on trails, the rest on the road. She nailed it – the route was almost a perfect 13.1 miles – we got to our “end” and needed .2 miles, so we jogged up the block and back to hit the mileage mark.
It was not an easy route with 1,000 feet of elevation gain. I loved checking out some new trails, though. Joanna is quite an explorer and it’s been really fun for me to follow her around the mountains.
Alex pulled the kids in the bike trailer to come cheer us on. One wonderful element of an organized run is the crowd and constant emotional support, so it was really sweet to see them mid-way and hear their cheers. While they were biking over to see us they saw a bear! It crossed the road a bit in front of them. Yikes!
Given the fact we’re in the midst of a global pandemic, both of us masked up for quite a lot of the run. We were able to stay 6 feet apart when we were on the road; however, on the trails one of us had to go ahead of the other, so, out of respect for each other we both wore masks to reduce any possibility of transmission.
It is not easy to run in a mask, but we did it for each other, and we had a wonderful time. We’re planning a 14-mile run potentially in August. Stay tuned!
