I had just, and I mean just, gotten over an injury when the coronavirus outbreak shut down my city; I had my last doctor's appointment about five days before our shelter-in-place order went into effect. In some ways, I'm sure all the staying at home has been good for my injured foot: if the gym had been open, I would've gone straight back to my intense routine. Instead, I had to ease back in with low-impact workouts, which are basically all I can do in my apartment. But after a couple weeks of being shut inside, barely even leaving for walks or errands, I started getting that ache for a long, mind-clearing run, the kind I hadn't had for months.
My first run was a nerve-racking experience. For one thing, I was terrified my injury would flare up, but more pressingly, I wasn't sure how I'd keep my distance from other pedestrians. I live in a suburban-ish area with wide sidewalks and streets, but my neighborhood has lots of families who like to hang out in the yard, take walks, go on bike rides, and play basketball in the driveway. My favorite route, a bayside loop through a county park, was closed, so I'd be running past homes and pedestrians the entire time. This was also around the time the CDC began recommending the use of cloth face masks when out in public, further complicating matters. I debated wearing a face mask while running, knowing it would likely be hard to breathe if I did (and that my lungs were already out of shape from four months of no cardio).
I ended up tucking the face mask in my leggings pocket and doing lots of creative street-crossing to maintain my distance, but I finished up that run feeling good about the precautions I'd taken. I've run every weekend since and developed a few go-to strategies to stay safe on my social-distanced runs, based on doctor recommendations.
It's not actually that complicated — the best way to stay six feet away is to stay six feet away — but having a plan when I step out the door has helped me feel safer and more relaxed on my runs. I know everyone I see on the sidewalk has the same concerns, so when I get annoyed at having to cross the street again or turn down a different road to avoid people, I remind myself that we're all on the same team and we all have the same goal: to keep ourselves and each other safe.