Running Update from Mexico

This week we kick off a series that provides updates on running in Mexico.  When we sent out our call for help for the Lounge, we were delighted to have Amaury De Leon respond and offer to bring regular news from the running world in Mexico. 

Amaury is a Mexican guy that loves his wife, run and guitar playing. A runner for a little more than one year and huge fan of 10 k's. Amaury (aka Atrusni) has a goal to run at least one 10k race per month and is striving to keep his time on the 10k below the 60 minutes mark. Atrusni lives in the Northeastern part of Mexico, in a city that is on the border with the US.  From there, he travels to cities (no more than 150 miles) around his hometown to compete on running races.

Here is his first report.   For me, it added so much color to the  news reports we hear in the States.  I will be honest - I never thought about the impact on runners and races.

Running Update from Mexio

by Amaury de Leon 

Picture provided by Atrusi from his hometown

It is hard to ignore that normal life is changing on a country that is going through a worldwide economic crisis, an unknown disease and discrimination from other countries that we considered as “friends”.  Incredible how life can change in a couple of months.

One of the activities that has changed in the country is running. During the last week, which was the peak of the pandemic crisis, one of the recommendations by the Federal Government was not to perform any type of outdoor exercise.  It seems that this measure has been eliminated, but still, the amount of people that are running on the streets has minimized. This has made that runners like me start becoming friends of our treadmills again.

Other measures taken were to cancel races and change dates of events on the country, modifying drastically the agenda of the runners. This can be frustrating for some runners that have been training for a particular event during the year.

Running as a sport on the country is going through a difficult time that we expect to get over with. On the other hand, this health crisis has made people value things that before were thought to be there by default on life. Everyday activities as simple as going out to the streets for a run, go and eat at a restaurant or going shopping to the mall are not as easy as they were before, and it seems like the risk of getting the human influenza is everywhere.  We have learned that nothing is free in life, and we must take advantage of things when we have them.

Has someone thought that a facemask was going to be an indispensable item to go outside?, that activities like hand shakes and kissing on the cheeks to greet people were going to be cancelled due to health concerns?, that in order to go to the movies, there must be two empty seats between you and another person to avoid any accidental propagation of viruses?. Sounds like a fiction movie or like a fatalist book, but no, it is simply the situation that Mexico is facing at this moment.

What I am thinking on writing on this space on future articles is about the situation that this universal sport is facing in Mexico. Unfortunately, these are the current conditions of the running sport in Mexico, but on the positive side, I can also say that normal life is coming back as days goes by.

Lets hope that next weekend we can run at least a small 10k race (without face covers of course!)

Follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/Atrusni

Blog - web.me.com/amaurydeleon

Comments

[Reid]

Hey Atrusni, great to see you in the Lounge. I'm pretty bad about following the news, so this post is pretty eye-opening. Let's hope things get back to normal soon!

[Erin]

Great article, very thought provoking. Looking forward to more :)