Take That Win Where You Can

[Joachim]

Last month, I participated in my biggest race ever, the Brooklyn Marathon.

The race weaved through various neighborhoods in Brooklyn, passing less than a block from my apartment. With over 20,000 runners, it was by far the biggest crowd I’ve ever run with. And while in 2022 we have learned to coexist with COVID-19, a pulmonary sarcoidosis fighter like me remains immunocompromised and at high risk. So it took a while to get comfortable running with so many people.

And as it is, I didn’t run the full 26.2-mile marathon, nor the 13.1-mile half marathon. Instead, I ran 9 miles.

Why? Because that was my plan. And I wanted to take a win where I could.

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Back in January, I contracted COVID-19, though my case was ultimately managed with the availability of monoclonal antibodies (even over a holiday weekend). Back then, I had just started training for the Brooklyn Marathon, excited to run such a big race for a full 26.2 miles. It would be my first marathon, and I had signed up for it in late 2021.

But my case of COVID-19 changed that plan.

After three weeks of January isolation, my training was way off. For much of February, I could barely run a mile without stopping to walk. So I made the hard decision to abandon the idea of a full marathon. Instead, I signed up for a different local race, the Brooklyn Half Marathon, which is set for late May.

Why then did I run in part of the Brooklyn Marathon race in April, after I had decided to quit the full marathon? Because I wanted the experience of so many runners on the road together. And since I was now training for the Brooklyn Half Marathon, I could use that race as my “long run” training for the week. At that point, the planned long run was, you guessed it, 9 miles.

Plus, I had already paid for the race.

I decided to take the win I could achieve, even if it wasn’t the win I wanted.

At this point in my training, I am finally (almost) able to run as well as I could before COVID-19. It has been a slow return, but at least I can still run.

But running in that Brooklyn Marathon meant that I had to accept conditions. I called them “personal pledges.”

I had to pledge to run no more than 9 miles. No matter how excited the crowd might be, I had to be disciplined and stop at 9 miles. While I might be able to run more, running more could compromise my Brooklyn Half Marathon training. If I ran too long, I might need time to recover, which could then jeopardize that Half Marathon.

I had to pledge not to be sad that I wouldn’t cross the finish line of a race I started. For this Brooklyn Marathon, there was a finish line at 26.2 miles and another at 13.1 miles. But since I was running 9 miles, I wouldn’t cross either of them. As a person who likes to finish what he starts, that made it a little sad. So I pretended that the 9 miles that day were really just part of the 13.1 miles I would run in May.

Last, and most important, I had to pledge to have fun and enjoy the run. Just months ago, I couldn’t even run a mile. A month before that, I was isolated at home with COVID-19. To get to run outside, even for a distance less than I wanted, was still a big victory compared with where I was earlier in the year.

So I pledged and decided to take that win where I could. And then, I had a great race — on my own terms.

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