Mental health check: it's okay to feel however you feel

Let me start this off by saying I’m not a mental health professional. My degrees in Spanish, international business, and sports management don’t qualify me to give any mental health advice. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But as we hit the first full week of a new month in our new normal of social distancing and self-isolation, I think now is as good a time as any to do a mental health check.

This past weekend was supposed to be the final leg of the Triple Crown of Running, the Allstate Hot Chocolate 15K/5K. Our community was supposed to come together at Waterfront Park, enjoy a perfect spring morning for a run, and then eat all the chocolate we could handle. Instead, we were all relegated to virtual races on our own. It was a sad feeling for me to wake up on Saturday, not at 3:00 am like I would’ve for the race, but at a normal wakeup time. It was a sad feeling to lace up my racing flats for my very first virtual race, my own 10K up to Iroquois Park (I love running Southern Parkway right now, as the walking area is wide enough to distance from others). It was a sad feeling when my pace started to slow three miles in, when I would normally rely on my fellow runners to keep me steady. No group photos at the end; no medal to commemorate an accomplishment. Just me, sweaty and out of breath from a slower 10K than I’ve raced in a long time. It was a sad feeling.

Maybe you were like me and ran your own virtual race on Saturday. Maybe you PR’d. Maybe you were like me and just felt like blah at the end. Maybe you’re not running at all through all of this. That’s perfectly acceptable. No matter how you spin this period, it’s traumatic. It’s different. We all handle trauma and changes in our own way, and no one’s way is better than anyone else’s. That pertains to your running life just as much as your personal life. You most likely had a race cancelled or postponed, and your motivations and attitudes are different because of it. It’s okay. No one is going to look back on this period and think, “dang, I wish I would’ve run more miles” or “my virtual 15K was way too slow.” We’re going to come out of this however we come out of it, and from there we’re going to rebuild and regrow.

One caveat to all of this: please avoid destructive behavior. If you need help or support in any way, reach out to someone close to you, to a health professional, or to a random stranger through one of the online resources available. We may not be able to see each other, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still reach out via phone or video chat to help each other. This is temporary, but please avoid any harm to yourself that may be permanent.

I don’t know how long this is going to last, or what our new normal will be when we all get to leave our houses a little more. I don’t know if we’ll even be racing again this fall (although I sure hope so). But what I do know is that however you feel throughout this journey, it’s okay.