The Dragon Runner

The Covid Year

10 Apr 2021

When I last posted here in February 2020 things were looking up and I had begun training again. I had completed the Kowen Trail Run & entered the Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge. But then the entire world got tipped on it's head as Covid-19 rampaged.

New South Wales went into lockdown in March 2020 with no one allowed to leave home unless it was for one of the exempted reasons. Since I work for NSW Health as an accountant I was declared to be an essential worker & required to continue working from the hospital for the entire duration of the lockdown and ever since. There is no working from home for me, and I am okay with that.

In the early days of Covid-19 commuting to work on trains was a very stressful affair, and outside of work or groceries I did not leave home. Every little sniffle right through winter was treated with intense suspicion & I've gotten used to the swab testing to confirm that I hadn't contracted the virus myself. After twelve months I find myself becoming comfortable with travelling on crowded trains again - although having received the first dose of the vaccination does help somewhat in this regard (bring on June for the second dose & better protection...).

As we move past the twelve months of Covid-19 "milestone", running events are slowly beginning to return and parkrun has been operating without incident since last last year. It's a good time for me to begin making plans again rather than just winging it as I have been.

The last year hasn't been totally wasted, I have been able to increase my running a little. It's been a long & slow process, and there is still a very long way to go before I get to where I want to be. Whereas before Covid-19 hit I was able to run for short distances of maybe 50-100 metres at a time, I can now stretch this to 800-1000 metres so long as I don't go too fast. I do still need a flat even surface like a road or paved footpath to feel comfortable & like challenging myself with rougher terrain occasionally.

Today I completed my 150th parkrun by returning back home to Shellharbour parkrun. It feels a bit odd going back there so rarely in recent months, it's just a real struggle these days with the hills & rough terrain. The fact that I can walk in after months away & its like I haven't missed a single run at home speaks volumes for the parkrun community at Shellharbour.

What does the future hold? I have set myself a goal of running a marathon distance split into four quarter marathon races across the October long weekend. This gives me six months to train, and I'm surrounded by a great group of friends who continue to inspire me to better myself.