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To Mask or not Mask?

May 28, 2020 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I went for a run with a certain Washington Post opinions writer this afternoon. I showed up wearing a mask. She had one dangling around her neck. "I guess we should run with masks on--is that what you usually do?" she asked (or something to that effect).

"Actually, I usually run with it around my neck and pull it up only when I pass people, I admitted.

"Oh good, me too" she replied. I was surprised.

"You know," I said, as we started to run, "I only started doing this after I read an op-ed* by a certain Washington Post columnist saying I should wear one to be polite."

She laughed. "Yeah, I wrote that piece and then I went out and ran with mask the next day for the first time. It was awful."

To be fair, my running companion had spent the last month isolated in a cottage in rural Maine where she rarely encountered other human beings on her runs. We managed to steer clear of them this run as well (apparently last time she was in DC she ran into "Anthony, and I think the younger Gunther sister" on the CCT). Wandered through the Geico parking lot, cut through Somerset Elementary near Linni's house, meandered through the neighborhood that has the old airfield landing strip up to Norwood Park, crossed Wisconsin and wandered through the neighborhood with no name where Katherine Treanor lives that I tried to map from memory back in high school, and finished by coming up Connecticut and Belt Road past the Belber house. A sufficiently GDS run, I should think. We talked about how each of us managed to flee back to the US from our international adventures just as the crisis hit, about Nathaniel and Matt's senior quest and about Abby Murphy's as well, and about the workflow of the Post Editorial Board. All in all, a delightful and engaging run. She was a bit ashamed it was so slow, I think, given that she's been training pretty steadily up in Maine for 5-10 mile runs at close to an 8-minute pace. I assured her it was about as fast I would want to go on a day like this. We got down toward 8:30 I think at some points, but at other times we were closer to 10. The humidity in DC in summer is oppressive, and coming here from Maine is like suddenly starting to train at altitude. She'll be back there in a couple days though, so this will sadly be our last run together for a while.

Anyone else wanna go running? With Julia Smith having skipped town yesterday; Isabel Kirsch in postseason recovery mode; Jon Ettinger, Peter Silverman, Zeke Cohen, Noah Kravitz, Emily Vogt, and the Gunthers in strict self-quarantine; and Ilana Zeilinger, Jacob Gaba, and Levi Friedman all injured, it's getting tough to find running buddies. For now I still have my college friend Andy Schmegel and Anthony. Maybe Leah and Anna will start accompanying me on my trespassing adventures?

*Roberts, Molly. "Runners should wear masks, but not because of the science." 5 May 2020. Washington Post. Available: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/06/we-all-need-be-nicer-each-other/