RUNNING AS
CATHARSIS
The running community can be stronger than anything that can divide us. / By Tonya Russell
I
t may seem so easy to discount the impact of 2020 and COVID-19 on running, considering how many lives have been dramatically impacted. However, the world has gotten to the point where everything overlaps. It seems like we can no longer shield running from other aspects of the world. How could we, considering that runners have lost their lives and livelihood to COVID? Even more, races have been canceled or have gone virtual and the recession caused by the pandemic made it even more difficult to reach individuals who would otherwise fall in love with the sport. It is all a part of what the business of running – and the running community – has faced and, at times, benefitted from in a pandemic year.
“I found a used jogging stroller on OfferUp and began to take my 18-monthold for runs in the park after dropping off the bigger kid at his outdoor playtime,” she explains, adding that she’s trying Couch to 5K again and so far she’s enjoying it. “I’m running about twice a week now, very slowly and not very far, but still doing it and pretty proud of that.” Patil’s opinion of the sport has changed so much, and though she finds it to be difficult, she is convinced of its chance to be a saving grace for a pandemic community. “I still find running really hard, but I’m craving the challenge, the change of pace and honestly just the feeling of getting sweaty and physically exhausted.
Anna Patil with Leela out for a run in Brooklyn.
A Prescription for Self-Care For Anna Patil of Brooklyn, New York, running became the prescription for self-care. Prior to 2020, she was not a runner at all, though she was a certified personal trainer. Her story is one of running through a pandemic. “Early in the pandemic – stuck at home in Brooklyn trying to work and manage two little kids, no car, nowhere to go – I started to just feel this urge to run. I wanted to get out in the world, move fast, feel free and get at least a little farther away from home than I could walk.” 30
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It’s cathartic. I actually wake up looking forward to the run, which I never thought I’d say.” Runners of Color The catharsis Patil feels on runs juxtaposes the harsh reality faced by runners of color, who run for many of the same reasons. And sometimes they run with the added burden of existing in a society where people who look like them may be met with suspicion in their own communities, or even killed, like Ahmaud Arbery. This reality is not lost on Houstonbased runner and journalist Emilia Benton. As if being benched by an injury in early 2020 weren’t enough, she had to face the notion that she had to keep politics out of running. As a woman of color, she’d like to discover a more supportive and inclusive space for others of color, especially seeing how many did not rally around Ahmaud Arbery as they did others who were murdered while out on a run. She tells Running Insight, “It’s definitely been eyeopening, especially on a local level. Most of the social justice-related articles I’ve written have received mostly positive feedback on a national level, but living in a red state it’s gotten me to see that many people do view all of this as
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