by Lynn Roulo | Tiny Buddha
“When you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~Winston Churchill
A couple weeks ago the Greek government announced that our quarantine would continue “well beyond April 6th,” the original date for which it had been set. We knew this was coming, but it was still hard to hear. And it was this same moment that my memories as a long-distance runner came flooding back.
I started running track and cross country when I was eleven years old. I joined the Los Gatos High School Track and Cross Country team when I went to high school where we trained hard and all year round. Our coach would give us a program for the summer and at the end, we’d spend a week in Lake Tahoe, training where the air was thinner. This thin air made it so our lungs had to work harder, and we’d get stronger.
I wasn’t just a long-distance runner, I was a long-distance runner with asthma, and that made things a little trickier. Running wasn’t a matter of mind over body for me, it was a delicate balance of my mind pushing my body but staying within range of what my lungs were capable of.
Most of the time, my asthma wasn’t an issue. But sometimes it was, and if you’ve ever suffered an inflammatory lung condition, you know that even the strongest will is rendered powerless if you can’t breathe. It humbles you, and that humility is useful.
As a former asthmatic long-distance runner, I understand we can’t beat the coronavirus through force of will. We beat it with patience, intelligence, discipline, and persistence.
We stay home so the virus has fewer opportunities to spread. We wait while doctors develop first an antibody test, so we know who is now immune, and then a vaccine, so we actually can eliminate it. This takes time, and this will take patience.
When I focus on my day-to-day life in the middle of a lockdown in Athens, it feels familiar—it feels like I’m on a cross country running course again.
The first week of self-isolation was like the first half mile. I started out fast and optimistic. “This is going to be fine. I’ve got this!” I told myself as I cleaned my house, made healthy food, set up video meetings with my friends all over, bumped up my at-home workout regime, and organized my new work life.
