Hey Athletes,
Your coaches don’t get to be out with you daily, so we don’t get to remind you to ‘be safe’ and ‘be respectful’…we know you well and we believe you are the most polite and appreciative high school team anywhere, yet it is worth passing along a few reminders now and then.
First, we do want you to keep our team spirit and support–while respecting the county’s and state’s directives for social distancing. Make sure you keep six feet apart (and it’s not bad to add a few feet just because it’s hard to keep this distance constant while running–more on that later). We want you to be safe.
Next–and this is really an item 1A not just item 2–we want the people around us to be comfortable, also. We can be conscious that different people have different levels of anxiety today; some people react by being more kind and patient with those around them, some people have become very snappish and prickly. Let’s not judge people; I’d like all of MVTF/XC to have a little empathy and strive to make others comfortable. If there are others around us, let’s spread out a little more. If you are running hill repeats with a friend or two–spaced out from each other, of course!–and there are other people hiking the hill, maybe instead of starting 6′ apart you split apart by 10′ or 15’–give the runner in front of you a full two seconds before you take off. I am not a doctor or an epidemiologist, I can’t tell you what the ‘right’ number is to be safe, but I do know that the hikers around you will feel better if they see you clearly spaced out, particularly if there are three or four runners in a loose and well spaced group–and in a society, how others feel matters.
And this should go without saying but…let’s be very conscious about where and when we choose to spit! 🙂
Thinking about how we interact and affect others is an important way we can make our communities feel as good as possible while we are sheltering in place. I don’t know how busy Fremont Older, Stevens Canyon and Rancho trails have been at different times during this period. You know better than me, and you can make adjustments. If you want to run a narrow trail or use a particular hill, and you know that area can be crowded with hikers, you can get up early and run before it gets crowded! My old friends ran Horse+Garrods last Saturday, starting at 6:30am, and did not see a soul out there (while keeping proper distancing!). If you get out there and it’s crowded, make room or consider running someplace else that day. If you oversleep and know that the trail you wanted to use will be crowded, then make an adjustment and run down the middle of the street in a quiet neighborhood, run one of the hills on a street around Varian Park or Scenic or whatever–there are lots of hills that might not be as nice as Matt’s Hill, but where you won’t be bothering anyone. For sure, when you are passing someone, give as much ground as possible–if you can give more than 6′ they will feel better.
But really–if you want to run a favorite trail, I suggest going to bed early, get plenty of sleep, and get up and beat the crowds. It feels better to start the day that way anyway–30 of us know that from Saturday morning workouts!–and you have plenty of room to enjoy the trails.
And if you do upset someone and they say something to you, please don’t get defensive and bark back! There are enough stressed out people, and if someone makes a remark then they are clearly worried about something. Please don’t feed their stress by being testy back, instead have some empathy and realize that you don’t know that their situation is. Rather than respond, “we were six feet apart” or “we are all sharing the trails” or “I’m not sick”, how about just saying “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to make anyone uncomfortable, we will give everyone some more space. Have a nice day!”?
At Monta Vista, we are super fortunate to have parks that are open and available for us, and quiet streets to run on, during the shelter-in-place. We should all show our gratitude for these places by the way we use the roads and trails, and respect the other users. Let’s have Monta Vista TF and XC continue to set the standard for safe, respectful, polite running in our neighborhoods–just as we always have!