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Earlier this week (or possibly last month, frankly time is weird at the moment) @trishgreenhalgh made a comment about runners - suggesting we should run with masks on. This thread isn't about her arguments, and it's absolutely not an attack on her. 1/10
It's a reflection on how it made me feel, and the decisions I have decided to take as a result. Other decisions are available! 2/10
When I first read her comments I felt hurt. I'm a crap runner, but it's one of the ways I define myself. Surely I was low risk, and so was my behaviour? 3/10
All sorts of arguments jumped around my head. There was an awful lot of whataboutery going on. I mean I live somewhere where I can (mostly) run without impacting on other people. Surely *I* wasn't increasing people's risks? 4/10
I thought about my most recent run. I had conscientiously moved well wide of pedestrians, and there weren't that many people about anyway! 5/10
Or had I? There was that one moment, in that narrow bit coming out of the railway tunnel. Oh. 6/10
And of course that's the reality. Mostly I can avoid others (and yes that is a luxury of where I live), but sometimes I won't. Perhaps a car will force me out of the road back onto a path. Or I will come around a corner and bump into someone. 7/10
And yes, as Trish points out, now is not a time to look for RCTs. It's a time to err on the side of safety. It's also a time to change behaviour by doing. 8/10
So I've decided that I will try to run with a mask. And I will start to wear one all the time when outside (to be fair the current cold weather makes that a lot easier). 9/10
But I will also think hard about how people might feel when a suggestion that is made strikes at how they define themselves (and especially when I'm in a position where it doesn't impact me). 10/10
