In Medias Race

This week was an average training week. I had to sit out a few runs due to a fussy ankle. I completely walked one of the runs and did very little cross-training. Our long run was 16 miles. It was hot and humid but otherwise unremarkable. I have loved seeing my city from the vantage point of a walker/ runner, especially when it is waking up. I don’t know why, but we really do have some of the most breathtaking sunrises in Oklahoma. The sky becomes a canvas of amber, rose, and cerulean swirls with rays of gentle light casting a glow over the atmosphere. If you let the moment take you, it can be a spiritual and revitalizing experience. In the quiet light of morning, you can sometimes feel your oneness with everything around you. The wind, trees, pavement, sleepy homes, birds and sky harmonize with your soul and you feel your connection to something grand and unnameable. It is a new day and anything is possible.

In those moments, it is easy to set aside all that is going on around us. It is hard to write a vanity blog when so many are suffering. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals recently issued a decision that halts several of my clients’ cases before they can even be heard. Then of course there is the news from Afghanistan and Hati, which is hard to comprehend the devastation in those nations repeating itself. Then there is COVID, again. Due to low vaccine rates and the rush to rid ourselves of mask, Oklahoma has once again found itself in a dire situation. This time our children in schools are the most at risk thanks to a poorly written and political pandering piece of legislation that bars most school districts from requiring masks. I have two friends who are doctors in our children’s hospital and the situation for children is much worse with the Delta variant. Our hospitals are running out of staff and beds and it feels like so many people are just tuning it out. I work at a university and assist with COVID related policies and procedures. We had eased up on restrictions last spring and early summer, feeling “cautiously optimistic.” We often discussed the situation the variants might create, but we really hoped for a year back to normal. We obviously won’t get that this fall.

Running has provided me an outlet to process or forget about everything for an hour or so several times a week. I am not sure where my head would be without it. I hope we call find ways to remain compassionate and supportive of our communities and one another, while maintaining our own mental health. It does not matter what field you work on, COVID has impacted as all in some way or another. It is exhausting to think that we are entering our 18 month of this pandemic with no real end in sight. I can’t and do not want to tune out what is going on in the world around me. I have learned that protecting my mental health and staying physically well allows me to continue to contribute to my communities in the ways I am talented. I am thankful I have found this sport. Those moments, when I am outside and swept away by the beauty and connectivity of it all, I find respite and hope. It can be fleeting, but it keeps me going. Where do you go or what do you do to find some calm in the chaos? Please feel free to share in the comments.