Running Through COVID: Should You Do It coronavirus pandemic head-on can be exhausting. While Jennifer Mashburn, a 34-year-old interventional radiologic technologist, is feeling that pressure acutely, she’s relying on running to alleviate the difficulties of her high-risk job and sustain positivity amidst the pandemic.
Her racing spirit hasn’t slowed either. On May 13, in honor of all her coworkers, Mashburn laced up her Asics Shoes & Gear.
Since the coronavirus became a global pandemic in March, Mashburn has been responsible for a myriad of tasks involving minimally invasive procedures at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb about 20 miles north of downtown Atlanta. She works directly with COVID-19 patients in the Vascular Institute, which means putting in 40-hour work weeks and an additional 13- to 24- hour on-call shifts.
The Health - Injuries reports that the Atlanta metropolitan area remains the hardest hit in the state, with upwards of 2,000 COVID-19 cases in surrounding counties. Because of the increased levels of viral exposure she faces at work, Mashburn is forced to isolate from her family and friends while the pandemic persists.
Through the stress from taking on extra hours, and sometimes loneliness, Mashburn has relied on running to alleviate the difficulties of her high-risk job and sustain positivity amidst the pandemic, logging around 20 miles total during her days off.
Weekend on-call shifts have compromised Mashburn’s time, but luckily, she has a support system at work that rallies around her, covering her shift for two to three hours so she can squeeze in her long run.
“Being able to run it’s like, ‘God, I can breathe. I can take a deep breath,’” she told Runner’s World. “You never appreciate breathing until you’ve spent an hour or two in a procedure, double masked, wearing lead, getting headaches and lightheaded.”
Mashburn fell hard for the sport in 2013 when a friend invited her to run in the Color Me Rad 5K in Columbus, Georgia. After enjoying the challenge and the atmosphere, she started a Couch to 5K training plan and has since finished about 25 races (both virtually and in-person).
“My coworkers don’t ask if I’m running a race, they ask what races I’m running,” Mashburn said.
The Virtual Brooklyn Half is one of six virtual NYRR races she’s done in the past six months. She finished in three hours and 12 minutes, and is one of 13,000-plus runners taking part in the half.
“It was a way to celebrate the fact that I can go running, and that we’re still okay,” Mashburn said. “It’s been scary. You’ll sneeze or cough, and have that moment of dread. We all try to joke it off, but at the end of the day you’re going home and thinking, ‘I coughed today. What did that mean?’”
To make her solo race a little more exciting, Mashburn mapped out a hilly route in her Atlanta neighborhood that ran past the home of one particularly famous rapper, inspiring the name she gave her course—the “Cardi B 13.1.”
“[Cardi B] only lives like four and a half miles away,” Mashburn said. “I just happened to read that she bought a house [in Atlanta] and I thought, ‘Wait a minute; that’s near me!’”
And if it isn’t clear yet that a pandemic hasn’t slowed Mashburn’s momentum, she’s gearing up for her first-ever marathon—the Chicago marathon on October 11. She’s not entirely sure that it’ll happen, but she’s going to train like it is.
“I’m trying to be optimistic. I want it to happen, and I’ll continue to train but I know there’s a significant chance that it won’t,” she said. “At the end of the day, health and safety have to be the race organizers’ top priority.”
