This post was meant to be short, a simple virtual race report on a course I ran several times. It was meant to be a happy run, in the parks we love to run in all year round. A run to celebrate one of local ultra runners who has created this course and directed a race on it for 10 years or so, Steve.
That's a lot for one day, isn't it? Well, you can guess something got wrong and, of course, it has to see with the current coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis we are trying to survive from. Sincerely, I was hoping for a short post, because, unlike what I see on social medias that confinement gives more time to many, for me, it's the opposite, a deluge of online meetings. On Friday, I started at 6 am with Romania and finished at 9 pm with China, 15 hours non stop, not even a break to... exercise!
Speaking of exercise... Like Dr Fauci in the US who keeps promoting exercise during pandemics, and still run himself every day at 79 while managing this incredible crisis, the French Ministry of Sports had to describe what type of exercise was authorized in France, as of this Thursday (my translation): "Exercising outside means a walk or a short jog but respecting 3 key rules: stay within a short distance from your house, so within a few blocks, and keep it short and with absolutely no other contact than people you live with. You can go out with your children, or alone, but you cannot gather with friends. No biking unless it's to go to authorized/essential work, or to pickup essential goods. Running a 10K? No, not possible/allowed! The idea is just to get your legs moving." Adding with a pinch of humor (she is a former Olympian): "If you run a 10K under 20 minutes, contact the Guinness Book!"
Pretty explicit, right?
In Italy, facing an hecatomb, they purely banned any outdoor activity. When everybody knows someone who died, nobody needs to be convinced by more arguments!
Spain (text found in a fabulous article on Medium): Specific ban on taking kids out for a walk or seeing friends or family (except to take care of people who need help, but with hygiene and physical distance measures).
What about our local Santa Clara county order? Per 10.a.iii "To engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with Social Distancing Requirements as defined in this Section, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, or running." With social distancing defined in 10.j as "For purposes of this Order, "Social Distancing Requirements" includes maintaining at least six-foot social distancing from other individuals". That's pretty explicit too, right? No biking(*), right?
Of course, I feel sorry for the cyclists and mountain bikers who are excluded from the perimeter of authorized activities. I feel sorry for folks we used to meet friends to go out, or to the movies, or coffee shops, or even walks around the block. They can always lobby with their reasons to relax the current constraints, but that's not an excuse to break the current regulations and directive which, I'm sure where established with a lot of thoughts, based on facts. I do have a sister, MD, on the front line and, from the stress of seeing people sick and dying, she can't believe that people still don't... believe in the necessity of such measures.
This Sunday, as a frequent user and customer (!) of the County Parks, I received another invitation to "Reminder: County Park Trails Open - Exercise Outside" stating:
"Dear Customers, We believe connecting people to nature and outdoor open spaces is more important than ever during this unprecedented pandemic, as being in nature provides important personal physical and mental health benefits. Studies show outdoor activity helps reduce stress and anxiety. If you feel the need to reduce the stresses of sheltering in place, please enjoy the trails in a safe and healthy manner while practicing social distancing, and remember public gathering is not allowed during this Public Health Order."Well, given the few usual customers, I was really happy to receive such confirmation. But they much has expanded their mailing list recently, or the medias leaked the invitation because, by mid day, park lots were full and, worse, many cars were parked on the side of Skyline Boulevard, in no parking allowed areas, at each trail head. Pure stir-craziness! I did so many runs on these trails these past 20 years and I've never seen so many people, at a time we should distance ourselves. Wrong move!
Now, let's switch to my anger... Of course, I love the fact that this humanitarian crisis finally made people realize that going outside, as a couple or a family, is healthy! Just frustrating that we had to crash our economy and social system to get there...
I wish I was wearing a side, front and back, stating that I had visited Israel (a week before they closed areas I visited there), France (total confinement), New York City (oops!), Las Vegas (I came back sick there, the worst place you can think of in terms of pandemic with boatloads of people coming in and out from all over the US and the world!), and other places hurt by the pandemic. Maybe others would have kept some distance... Maybe next time, I should run with a mask, that's scary. But it's so much harder to breath too...
Bottom line, this is not sustainable running at all. I'll find other places to run, mostly staying in my neighborhood per other countries' recommendations, sorry to let you down, local parks, but I think this will actually help you cope with a new local disaster. Think about it, the personnel in charge of maintenance of the restrooms at most parks have been deemed non essential. Leading to the closure of these facilities. With flocks coming in, not even used to behave outdoors. Any need to comment more on that...?
As the story develops this first weekend of the shelter-in-place order, my running buddies report the same issue from around the Bay and there are already talks about shutting down the Parks:
- SF Chronicle's report on East Bay Parks;
- Report of closure of Point Reyes because of too many visitors and the impossibility to enact #SocialDistancing;
- Chaos at Rancho San Antonio and Mt Umunhum parking lots;
- Overcrowded parking lots at other local parks;
- And more reports of the problem on Facebook.
Thinking more about the issue, I feel one of the biggest mistake was to call the health directive, #SocialDistancing. For many, the word social is now associated with (virtual) social medias. What about #PhysicalDistancing? Then maybe you get the 6 (horizontal) feet distance...
As for my run? Again, back to the mixed feelings and sentiments. It would be selfish to say that I was just happy to do a 50K. Sincerely, I didn't see the issue coming, and it really materialized much later in the day (I stayed home on Sunday, based on one I'm reading, I can only believe the issue got worse on Sunday). After winning three editions (2011-2013) I was really excited to give another try to that course, and respond to Steve's call to celebrate his birthday, St. (Steve) Pat(t)rick's and the Spring. And keep ramping up my return to training after 7 months off, last year. Besides, I was supposed to be in France for 4 weeks, starting last Sunday, to actually get a treatment on my hamstring injury, so it felt completely normal and reasonable to do this run. I didn't intend to push after last week's 50-mile National Championship, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass on, this non-group run, given all the circumstances.
On my way up Highway 9, it stared raining and the temperature kept going down. It was even chillier than last week but, thankfully, only drizzling. Well, I had said the same last week, before the rain turned to heavy pour... I got to the parking lot at 9:05 and was surprised not to see Steve's car (you can't miss it with his custom plate!). He arrived shortly after and left around 9:10 or 9:15. Not in a hurry, at least I thought, I started at 9:42.
50 yards in the steep downhill, I stopped to adjust my pack and thought, "if I stop every 50 yards, it's going to be a long day!" 200 yards later, the trail became slippery and I realized how foolish I had picked a pair of overused road shoes (1,322 miles in these Brooks Launch, and they are still so comfortable, especially on trails!):
Thankfully, most of the remainder of the course was just humid after some rain last week, and actually super soft and smooth to run on!
3 miles in, the rain had stopped and I was getting really hot under my jacket so one more stop to take it off. And a few other stops to get my phone out of the pack to check if I was still on the right course (I get so confused between all races, and orienteering isn't my specialty... And no ribbons today for a change!). With that, I was slow and it took me 5 miles to catch Steve. As opposed to the three official races back then, I walked some of the uphill to Saratoga Gap Trail. Partly because of the lack of motivation to push, partly because of the lack of training and conditioning, partly because of physical and mental fatigue (I knew coming back from injury was going to be challenging, and the injury isn't even over yet...). Instead of reaching the Saratoga Gap turnaround in 1:30, I got there after 1:54. I had left a can of Pepsi when driving back in the morning and drank 1/3 of it. Someone would have done a good movie: because Steve was interested in the rest of the can, I was holding the can with my rain jacket and was trying to pour the coke without touching it with my mouth. It gat rather messy, spilling such a sugary liquid all over me, I'm glad I was outdoor! Don't try that at home... ;-)
I actually crossed path with Steve again, about 0.8 miles from the Gap (I had lost 6 minutes over there). We stopped, carefully trying to keep as much distance as possible on a single track, keeping #PhysicalDistancing on a trail is really challenging. Really, it feels like people think they are distancing with their social connections if they go out (and/or off Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, ...). And, then, outside it's like we aren't socially connected to strangers on the trail, so what the heck? Again, the concept of distancing is... physical, not about social connections in the modern sense of it.
I didn't see Steve again, but he was able to finish the whole distance. A feat as a septuagenarian, green hats off, please! As miles were passing, or rather time in the day, I was getting into more people. And more people. For the past 15 years I've never seen this except on weekends at Rancho of course, the last place I'd go to these days. Couples on fire roads were not much of an issue, with proper announcing, but families and groups weren't all respectful of the directives. When I got back to the car at mile 20, I considered calling it a day. If I had known what was ahead, that is the number of people on the trails from there, I would have.
Well, I would have missed Jeremy, so I'm glad I continued. I thought Jeremy was finishing the 50K but he had no idea what I was talking about. Oh, and if Jeremy appears too close on that selfie, well it's just an optical illusion, a matter of perspective, after all he is taller than... 6 feet. We kept our distance to catch up after not seeing each other since I dropped out of track workouts a year ago.
For the rest of the run to Rapley Ranch Road and back, not only was I tired physically, but my mind was fried by the lack of civic sense of many hikers. If it was a competition I'd give the following prizes:
- First place to a family of 3 which I had to pass on a downhill single trail down to Alpine Pond. I announced myself once; not a move off the middle of the trail; a second time; not a single attempt to make room; so here I went, less than 1 foot on the side...
- Another family, of 5 that time: I was going up Ancient Oaks Trail, another single track, without much extra breath to spare. They were going down with no intent to try going on the side so I went off the trail, below it, lowering my head and covering my mouth. There was this cute girl behind who said after passing behind me, in French (!): "look, Dad, this guys is going to die!" Really funny indeed.
- To wrap-up the podium, a 8-year boy, his dad and grand-pa. I arrive at an intersection between a fire road and the last single track to the finish. I stop and show my intent to go on the single track which the little boy was blocking the entry of. The dad was already on the fire road so I mention the 6-ft distance requirement, once, then twice, hoping they would understand the situation. At that point, the boy excited to see me rushes toward me, dang!
I'm skipping crossing couples on fire roads, with them staying side by side and giving me a weird look as I was getting off the road in the grass. I know, this is a strange period, but didn't they get the memo? Sorry but not sorry, it's not me who was rude in that situation...
Insignificant anecdotes but, multiplied by 20 or more, not only that slows you down, but that's not the point, it just shows there are still many people not believing. I bet these two families are not living under the same roof for instance:
(*) Post update after a few comments on Facebook about my understanding that biking was banned. In paragraph 5 of the order, biking is not authorized. In 10.a.iii, biking is not included in the examples of activities excluded from the order restrictions (walking, hiking, running). Yet, that FAQ page, which provides great clarification, states that recreational biking is ok. So confusing... Starting with the fact that this FAQ page comes from the San Mateo County, not Santa Clara. Unfortunately, the equivalent page from Santa Clara isn't as good and doesn't mention biking... One thing I had not mentioned in my first version of this post is that, by any mean, it is not the time to get injured while exercising anywhere, but even less on remote trails. Not the right time to learn about safety on these remote trails. It's not that you would do it at your own risk, if you get injured and require hospitalization, you are doing it at the risk of others.
And so on and so on... Until the parks have to close as well. Then the beaches maybe? And the streets at the end... Some people have suggested fines to enforce distancing, surely there aren't enough Rangers out there to monitor hundreds of miles of trails!
Anyway, overall, a sluggish elapsed time of 5:55:26. In the spirit of the virtual race, I didn't stop my watch for my numerous stops (checking the course on the map, taking pictures, refilling my bottles, stopping at the car, handling or mitigating #SocialDistancing, chatting with Jeremy, adjusting my pack, taking my jacket off, retying my shoe lace, ...). In a race, I often skip aid stations or I stop for less than a minute to get water because every minute count, even in an ultra. This Saturday? My Garmin says I spent 33 minutes not moving at all, wow! That still leaves me with 5:21 of running, with too much walking. Comparing to Leor's 3:56 course record, or my 4:15, 4:17 and 4:32 wins, that looks embarrassing... Oh well, that was a virtual race with only three entrants...
At least it wasn't time wasted at the aid station to eat. I ran the 32 miles on 2 pouches of Vespa, 4 GU Energy gels, 1.5 bottles of GU Energy Brew and 5 S!Caps.
To conclude on a lighter note, since I wasn't in usual race rush and I took the time to stop here and there, here are a few pictures from this great 50K course with trails in perfect conditions.
Christmas Tree Farm (funny how, running through this section in the summer heat, my mind didn't print this reference to the winter Holidays... ;-) )
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1 comment:
March 24 updates:
- California: all parkings closed at all parks per Governor's order
- France: jogging limited to 1 hour max, alone, and not father than 1 km from home (Prime Minister's address)
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