Thoughts from a run in a pandemic

Yesterday was dark and rainy and windy and a difficult day for many. Today however, I woke up, ate breakfast, put on my running gear, did a warm up and headed out for a run. Running ALWAYS makes me feel better. It gets my brain going when it’s stuck in a rut. It gets my ideas flowing. It gets my heart pumping, not only to sustain the energy I need for the run, but it feels more full of love and open. 

And today was no different. 

This is the beginning of the fifth week of quarantine here in New Jersey. Five weeks of being at home, five weeks of wondering and worrying and television and food and masks and walking the dog and Zoom. 

But on today’s run I was acutely aware of how grateful I am. Almost exactly seven years ago, I started out as a personal trainer. At the time, I had a reasonable expectation that I would work part time while raising my young son with my (now ex-) husband in our house in Maplewood. Little did I know that being a personal trainer would become so much of who I am. It would become my career and so much of my life. It would be how I supported life as a single mother. I built this business into something I never could have imagined it would become, but I did not do this alone. 

There are people I have worked with as their trainer since the very beginning and this five weeks of quarantine is the longest I have gone without seeing them in almost seven years. I have been with you through divorces (yours and mine), surgeries, pregnancies and babies (all yours), first 5Ks and marathons (ours), kids starting school, having first girlfriends or boyfriends and going off to college. I’ve been with you before the sunrise, through job loss, parent loss, anxiety, joy, success, failure, struggle and discovery. 

And you have been with me through all of that as well. 

I am so very grateful to all of my clients. The amazing people I spend time with one-on-one, laughing, crying, jumping, lifting and running. The wonderful people I meet outside in groups in the beautiful weather for my boot camps. The couples I train together, the friends who workout together with me. It’s been an amazing ride. 

I am still here. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you again. Thank you.