Running Is Not Canceled | Processing Coronavirus’ Impact on The Sport

A lot of us runners, myself especially, have dealt with injuries. Whether I’ve dealt with a serious football injury or a running injury that’s something from over-usage. I’m sure a lot of people have dealt with those sort of things and the stress fractures and the tendonitis and the pulled muscles and things of that nature.

When I was thinking about this pandemic situation, I thought about it as last week was the whole ‘OK, I’m hurt but I’m in denial. Something is bothering me but I’m in denial and I’m going to figure it out. It’s not going to be that bad.’

And then this week was when you go to see the orthopedist and he said, ‘Oh guess, what. You’re really fucking hurt. You need to take eight weeks off. No running. You’re going to have to change your life. You’re going to have to do nothing for this to get better. And even then, we still don’t know if you’re going to actually be better. That’s what I’m anticipating but we don’t know if you’re actually going to be better. But for now, you’re going to have to be patient and you’re going to have to change the way that you do your life.”

Week 1 of a doctor telling you that you have eight weeks that you have to be stagnant in order to hopefully be better is the hardest. It is the toughest point to get through mentally and physically – just adjusting to your new norm.

Eventually, you begin to find a way and you see a light at the end of the tunnel.

But the worst part about especially a running injury is that when they say it’s just eight weeks, I would say 30 to 40 percent of the people who try to come back from an injury realize that eight weeks wasn’t enough and you need more than that.

To me, this is Week 1 of a doctor telling you, ‘Guess what? You’re fucked and you need at least six to eight weeks and don’t fuck this up. You can’t have a single thing slip in the next eight weeks. Otherwise, it’s going to be 10 weeks or it’s going to be 12 weeks.’ And that’s kind of where our country is at right now.

There are harsh limitations being put on people and people need to adhere to them and respect them. I think if we do, we can find a light at the end of the tunnel at some point here. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Again, we have to adhere by the limitations in order for it to be better sooner than later. Any slip on that is going to push out the timeline and as an athlete, you know when you’re injured and they push back the timeline on your comeback, it is frustrating as hell.

That is where we’re at right now. It’s frustrating but you have to respect the doctor’s orders.


Chris Chavez and Ryan Welsh sit down (maybe six-feet apart) to discuss the impact coronavirus has taken on the world, sports and running. Topics discussed include: Running in uncertain times, listening and heeding the advice of experts, Boston and London Marathon postponed, should the Olympics and trials get canceled or postponed and more.

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Chris Chavez

Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.