Running etiquette and safety during shelter-in-place

Most sport options are shut down now–no gyms, no public pools, no yoga studios, no pick up soccer or basketball games, no spin classes.  

But running is still here!  All you need to be running is a pair of shoes, roads and trails, and the desire to get out there and run.  Running as an activity is pretty much unchanged from before the virus.  Running helps keep us fit and healthy with strong immune systems.  

Randall Stafford, a professor of medicine at Stanford who focusses on disease prevention, public health and infectious disease epidemiology, writes “Regular exercise is an effective stress management tool. Maintaining or improving your fitness level can also reduce the risk of viral infection and even the chances of severe COVID-19 complications…don’t let protecting yourself against coronavirus cause your health to take a plunge. While it is important to keep the pandemic in perspective while taking it seriously, the usual strategies for keeping yourself healthy are themselves important precautions against COVID-19.“

Yet with all the uncertainty of how to best avoid the coronavirus, and the drastic change in our daily lives over the last month, comes a lot of fear and confusion.  Runners breathe hard, and people ask are runners following appropriate social distancing.  What are the risks?

John Swartzberg, a professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and infectious disease expert, says “it is difficult to imagine that joggers represent a threat to others.  We define a significant exposure to <the coronavirus> to be face-to-face contact within six feet with someone with a symptomatic  infection that is sustained for at least a few minutes, for example 10 minutes.  The chance of catching <the coronavirus> from a passing individual in a public space is negligible.”

I’m not a doctor, but this makes sense to me.  If we practice social distancing, I believe that MVTF and MVXC athletes can continue to pursue running and training in the sport that they care about.

Monta Vista runners should follow the same etiquette lessons that we follow when we are training as a team.  We are part of a society, and there are other people out walking who are trying to exercise and enjoy themselves and feel better.  We are all under the shelter-in-place order and we all have our own stresses.  So when we are out running, remember…

• Be safe, for yourself and for others.  Keep six feet of separation.  When you are passing people on a sidewalk or trail or road, let’s be considerate and safe.  We are young and fit and can get off the sidewalk and run in the street, or step off the trail and get around other people.   Give other people using the road or trail plenty of room.

• Leave the headphones at home!  If you can hear people and focus on who is around you, you will be less likely to run into someone or not hear a car.  Running without headphones is both safer and more considerate.

• Masks:  Many of us tried these out during the air-quality problems in November 2018…if you still have a mask, it’s not a bother to wear it.

• If you need water on a long hot run, carry your own handheld water bottle rather than use a public fountain.

• Figure out what times and what places are the least crowded.  There are plenty of empty neighborhood roads we can find to run on.

• Be polite!  Being polite is something that MVXC and MVTF runners are good at doing.  Saying ‘good morning’, a smile and a wave to walkers means a lot to people.  A kind word and a wave can be the difference between a walker thinking ‘what are all these runners doing here?’ and instead thinking ‘these Monta Vista kids are so nice’.

All of us are outdoors trying to stay healthy and happy, and we are sharing the roads and trails with other people trying to do the same.  

I am constantly proud of the way Monta Vista track and cross country athletes behave when we are around others.  This team is the first to help move hurdles at track meets, both home and way; our athletes enthusiastically and conscientiously thank judges and volunteers at competitions; I can’t count the number of times that walkers at parks have told me how nice and how polite our team is.  I believe that we can make a difference in people’s moods and attitudes during the worries and stresses of the shelter-in-place period.  When our neighbors are out for a walk, seeing a high school runner with a big smile on her face giving a wave to the people she passes, or a cheery good morning as a couple of boys run down the street (six feet apart!), that can make someone’s day.

When things are rough, MCXC/MVTF can double down on being considerate and nice.   We can all do our bit to make our running better and our society a little happier.  Let’s say ‘good morning’ and throw a big smile to people we pass while running in Cupertino!