The back up plan

Usually for St. Patty's Day Mird and I (and a bunch of our awesome runner friends) head to Clare to run their 10k and eat green pancakes.  It's just what we do to celebrate this particular holiday. This is our tradition!! This year the race hit our nephew's birthday, March 14, so I decided to forego the race and head to eat birthday cake with the Smiths while Mird manhandled some green pancakes. Divide and conquer so to speak.  Mird signed up everyone she knows who is willing to run 3 miles to run Clare's 5k with her. We'd go our separate ways for the morning and we planned an after party at mom's that night. Well the universe wasn't quite in order for any of those mass gatherings to occur as Friday the 13th of March we found ourselves entering the twilight zone, I mean Covid-19 Era...and


The next thing you know, complete hysteria.....The whole world became infected with a horrible disease pandemic and races all across the world were canceled. And it felt like complete chaos all around us!  One after another. Every St Patty's Day Race on the planet. Canceled. Boston. Berlin. Tokyo. Postponed. Canceled. Canceled.  The Olympics.  Not Canceled, but postponed until 2021.The canceling madness was, well, maddening!

And during all of the hysteria that has become known as "the Covid-19 Pandemic", Mird and I have only seen each other once. Only once and it seems like a million years ago.  Did I mention it was just one time?!  It's disastrous, preposterous, crazy. We're sisters and we're having to navigate all this craziness without each other, but I'm sure I am preaching to the choir.  Actually I'm preaching to many choirs for sure. And of course, I'm preaching remotely, virtually, or otherwise distanced because that is the only way to communicate these days. Social distancing is all the rage these days and it's all about flattening the curve! Basically, this means we want to avoid having everyone get sick at the same time so we stay away from people as much as possible to avoid passing it on to others right now.

 As you can see, if the curve is kept flatter, the health care systems will be able to keep up with patients' needs and fewer people will die. It's pretty simple, but it ignites a lot of complicated and heated opinions and it makes some people crazy.  In fact, it motivates some people to feel they're entitled to push their opinions onto other people and judge your every move. It's kind of like having a baby.  When you have a baby, everyone feels they need to give you lots of advice when what you really need is a stiff drink and some quality sleep. Right now, I really just need a good drink, a good night's sleep and a teacher willing to take on three uncooperative kids (just kidding about the teacher, but honestly that is the hardest part of this).  Right now you really can't do much of anything without someone questioning if you're practicing adequate social distancing, properly partaking in personal hygiene rituals, and all while they scrutinize a slew of other personal decisions you make everyday during this damn crisis just to survive.  I'm willing to just accept everyone is doing the best they can under extremely difficult conditions and move along. As the saying goes, I'm willing to Leave the rest to God. It's hard for me to accept sometimes but He is in control and has a plan. We just don't understand it right now. It's maddening, but I'm getting off topic so back to the story...the one about running!

At least in the initial moment of crisis when schools across MI were suddenly closing, Mird was level-headed enough to throw together a small St Patty's Day race at her house; she's so awesome!  This became known as the "back-up plan".  I know it's a really clever and original name.  At the time, the order was fewer than 50 people was safe to gather so we were technically within regulations, but I am sure some people judged us nonetheless. We washed hands like a million times. We stood far apart (except for the photo). We touched nobody (except that victory handshake and we washed twice immediately after it).  We were careful.  Oh and of course we ran! My favorite part was when the Race Director, aka Mird, thanked everyone for coming and yelled Happy Coronavirus Day!  I mean under the circumstances, what do you really say?!?  In that moment, everyone cheered and I felt all then positive energy and excitement of a great BIG race in our tiny little St Patty's Day Fun Run.  It was truly magical.  There was a 5k and a 10k and it was a great route. Flat because all of Gratiot County is flat and fast if you decided to run fast. For me it was flat and slow, because I'm slow when running solo and I had to keep proper social distancing intact. It was okay though because I was running in fresh air with spirits high and I felt great. It was pretty special. Possibly illegal, but special nonetheless.  I am just now getting around to writing about it because despite the fact that I'm suddenly unemployed, I'm homeschooling our kids and Jeff is working from home so I actually feel busier than usual!

Why, yes I am dressed as a leprechaun!   Thanks for noticing.  Oh and I got first place in the 10k!  Check out the trophy below!

I know we never should've shook hands but we washed them right away when we were done!  Twice!!!

The Sisterhood:  St Patty's Day Recovery Run Ithaca MI 

The tour de Alma College 5 miles-- all smiles! This was our recovery run the day after Mird's race.  It was a glorious run just the two of us and we kept a safe distance other than the selfie!

Now all we can say to each other is:

Corona Disclaimer: Joking around is my defense mechanism. In all honesty, I'm taking this outbreak very seriously. I read The Hot Zone by Richard Preston back in the 90's and that scared the heck out of me. So I totally get this is a serious matter and I am doing my part not socializing and keeping my distance.

Vern and Mird OUT...
 No actually Vern and Mird IN, but not together that would be totally illegal!