Yesterday it marked one year of confinement in Paris because of Covid-19 and the day I started running outdoors. A few weeks ago, I had just bought my must-haves for running and started to run on the treadmill, and then I received an announcement of my gym closure.
Running was completely new to me and I did not how the journey was going to be. It was easy to run indoors, but running outdoors was next level to me. I had never tried it. I was nervous and completely freaked out. As there is a positive side to everything, I started running outdoor on 17th March’2020 fighting all my fears and doubts, and yesterday, I completed my first running anniversary. How did I celebrate it? By running 8+ km!
My running journey went through all the restrictions implemented in Paris:
- distance limited to a maximum of 1 km from the house
- distance limited to a maximum of 3 km from the house
- only permitted to 1 hour outside
- mandatory to carry an attestation letter to prove that you are out of your house for exercising
None of the restrictions stopped me from running. When I had one hour, I ran for an hour. When I could run up to only 1km from my house, I did multiple reps. I was just happy that I could run.
As the winter approached, I thought I would not continue running because it’s so cold in Paris but I was wrong. I wore layers of jackets, gloves, winter hats and I ran. Now, I love running during winter. It’s tricky in the beginning but after a while, you feel warm and completely forget about the winter. Also, during the winter, I felt like I increased my stamina, another benefit.
In 2020, I dedicated my October run for Breast Cancer awareness, and this year, I am dedicating my March run to Women History Month. I recently completed my first 8km marathon for promoting equality between men and women and I am looking forward to running for more causes that I support. From day 1, I shared my running stories on Instagram and later, I had many friends reaching out inquiring about running. In February, Alice completed a 50km run for the month that she thought was impossible in the beginning. Now, I belong to a Nike Run Cub group with a group of runners including Alice to hit our monthly goals and it’s never been so much fun. Always empower, support, and cheer each other!
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