Coronavirus Fluidity and the State of the Parnell Family
By Chase Parnell — March 17, 2020
As you may or may not have noticed, we’ve sort of been plugging away with our normal content without addressing the coronavirus directly. Partially because, there is just so much being written already that we felt, what could we offer to the conversation? Why not put out running content, because hell, we could all use a little distraction from the noise, right? But as things continue to escalate, we’ve decided it would be good to add our (actually, I shouldn’t speak for Nikki, mostly my) take on the COVID-19 dialogue. I’d like to provide you with a look into our reality, what we’ve done up to this point, and what we’re planning to do going forward. This is not meant to be taken as any sort of model for what you should do, but instead, it can serve as a simple snapshot of what one family in particular is doing during these very strange times, and you can make your own conclusions from there. If you’ve read Treeline Journal much, you know I’m a pretty open and honest guy, so rest assured, I won’t sugar-coat anything or round off the edges. Okay, let’s get into it.
Social Distancing Trends and Failures
One of the craziest things about this experience is how fluid it is. It literally feels as though it changes by the hour. And honestly, I’m not one that has had my finger on the pulse of it all that closely. I get my news push-notifications like everyone else, I read/skim a handful of articles each day, and I chat with people in my world about the virus to the exclusion of most other things. It seems we all pretty much have the same information, there are just differences in interpretation and implementation. If I had to gauge myself on the freak-out meter, generally speaking, I’m someone who is typically pretty laid-back, a late-adopter type. I tend to raise a skeptical eye at headlines in the media and always remember that they are for-profit enterprises in a competitive over-crowded space. I’ve felt at times during the pandemic that the media is the only entity that is, hashtag winning. People are more engaged with news and information sources now than at any time since 9/11 (I made this up but it has to be true).
So with that said, I’ll admit that I hadn’t taken the social-distancing recommendation as seriously as others I know until now. I flew to Los Angeles on March 7th, ran the marathon on March 8th with 27,000 other runners, toured the city on March 9th, all while stopping in at many coffee shops and restaurants along the way. We also navigated the airports and airplanes. I was with my mom and dad (at-risk age category) and we tried to do our best to be safe and clean, washing our hands and not touching our faces. There were lots of nervous corona jokes and catching each other during acts of potential self-exposure, i.e. picking our noses or getting something out of our eyes.
It is now Tuesday, March 17, seven full days since we returned to Bend, and I’m not currently sick or exhibiting any symptoms. With each passing day I feel better and better that I didn’t contract the virus while in L.A. Harvard University has an online Coronavirus Resource Center that says, “…the time from exposure to symptom onset (known as the incubation period) for most people has yet to be determined. Based on current information, symptoms could appear as soon as three days after exposure to as long as 13 days later. Recently published research found that on average, the incubation period is about five days.” So I’m beyond the average time, but then again, your clock essentially resets every time you go out into public. But admittedly, that trip was higher risk than, say, going to the local grocery store.
What else have I done? Last Friday, I took my four year old, Dash, to a recycling center and we made $53 from recycling all the Le Croix aluminum cans I drank since I stopped drinking alcohol back in August. Hundreds and hundreds. While there, I kept a very close eye on him, I told him multiple times before we got there to not touch things or his face while I was putting cans in the machine, and upon leaving we washed our hands and used hand sanitizer once in the car. We then went to a park. I selected a small one in Bend that we know hardly ever has any kids there. And true to our experience, we played for 30 minutes and saw no other kids.
Until Saturday, March 14th, I was still going to coffee shops to work. Many of the coffee shops in town implemented procedures and practices that made me feel more at ease and I was personally very careful about my own hygiene etiquette. What I’ve come to appreciate with more gravity, however, is that I could be a carrier without any symptoms. If I did contract it during my trip to L.A. or at any other point, is it worth infecting someone else so that I can have a quiet place to work with wifi?
I do feel for all the local businesses right now, but it seems we’ve now reached a point where it’s sort of a no-brainer that their financial losses are not as important as the greater public health. In some cases, we’re talking about life or death. Now, that should be obviously tempered with the reality of the coronavirus. We’re not dealing with the bubonic plague, which by the way killed 50 million people and 60% of Europe’s population between 1346-1353. But lives are still needlessly being lost today because people are not adjusting their lifestyles to help fight the spread, and I’ve been guilty of that until recently.
Okay, so let’s say we all agree to avoid all non-essential outings and stay home. How long could our country’s economy hold up with this type of mass isolation and slow-down in spending? There is a bit of balancing that has to happen here. We don’t want to beat the coronavirus only to find ourselves in an impossible economic place, setting off anarchy and revolt. This public health vs. economic balancing is one of the toughest dilemmas our elected officials are now tasked with deciding. It’s becoming clear, though, that if the majority of us don’t voluntarily isolate and self-quarantine, then we’ll be forced to by the government anyway and the duration of the pandemic and its effects will lengthen. In Spain and Italy, you can be fined or put in jail for violating their lockdown protocol.
Anxiety and Dis-Ease
I imagine there are unprecedented levels of anxiety out there. Even Nikki turned around early on a run recently because she said things just, “felt dark out there.” In my early 20s, I dealt with anxiety and had to learn how to manage this seemingly uncontrollable problem. For me, medication only exacerbated my symptoms so I ended up working with a cognitive behavioral therapist who was also a psychology professor at the University of Oregon. I met with her maybe six times, and it’s amazing how many little tidbits I remember from my time with her. One of the most powerful “tidbits” was the following: anxiety is your body telling you that you need to make a change. If you are feeling super anxious in life right now, first off, know that you aren’t alone and that it’s totally normal. There isn’t anything wrong with you. It’s very common to have periods of high anxiety. Second, don’t maintain the status quo and try to white-knuckle it through the storm. If you’re paranoid about getting the coronavirus, don’t just go about your life and hope you don’t get it. Self-quarantine, eat healthy foods, exercise, check all the boxes. This will give you confidence and help dampen the anxiety around it. If you’re panicking about finances, write it all out, make a plan and implement measures that will help you minimize the damage. The key, from my experience, is that you need to do something differently to almost trick your mind into believing that you’ve found a solution, so it can then send messaging to your body that everything is okay.
Focus on tangible things that you can do and change. Feelings and emotions are fleeting. You can try really hard to be calm or find that cheery quote or perspective, but ultimately, I’ve found that those states of mind come and go with the wind. You need to be able to look at your situation objectively and say, “I changed x, y, and z, and now I’m feeling better because of it.” If anxiety returns, repeat the same process, because it means that your body is still uncomfortable with your place and situation. You CAN continue to change it.
Physical Activity and Leisure
With Trump advising gatherings not exceed 10 people and the new CDC recommendation that all events of 50+ people be cancelled, races are following suit. Lake Sonoma 50 was going to be my next race on April 11, but it was cancelled. Honestly though, I don’t know that I could’ve made it to the start line anyways since I jacked up my hamstring at the L.A. Marathon. Just yesterday, I tried to play a game of tag with Dash and it was clear it’s not even ready for a tester run. My next planned race (which I already purchased flights and lodging for) was the Cruel Jewel 100 in Georgia on May 15th. I can’t imagine that race will proceed but they haven’t officially canceled it yet. My thoughts right now are that I’ll make sure my hamstring is fully recovered and then start training with Cruel Jewel in mind despite knowing that it’ll likely be cancelled.
The one upside of having an injury that only effects my running is that I can dabble in other outdoor activities. This past week, I went on two long walks and two mountain bike rides. And crazily enough, those mountain bike rides were the first two of my entire life! Don’t ask how I managed to live in mountain towns for the majority of my adult life and avoided taking a bike on trails. Add to that the fact that I’m a seasoned bike commuter. I just always ran I guess. The rides weren’t pretty and I walked sections I know I’d be publicly shamed for in cycling circles, but I had a blast. There was the bit where my bike seat fell off though. Don’t ask.
Final Words: Go Team, Rah, Rah, Do Your Part!
Honestly, between the time I started this post and the time I finished it, my perspectives have already shifted. That’s how fluid the situation is! And new notifications from local, state, and federal governments are coming in multiple times a day. I guess I’d recommend doing some research of your own and deciding how to proceed. This isn’t something to ignore or to plug your ears and sing La-La-Laaa at.
All the smart people I follow on the internet are saying we need to distance ourselves socially to prevent the spread of corona. It may not be a matter of life or death for you, but it might be for the at-risk person that sits in the seat you recently vacated. It was easy to dismiss China because, could we be any more different than them? Then Italy and Iran were hit bad, but we ignored them as outliers too. But then Spain, then France, and for Christ’s sake, NORWAY! They are all implementing far more extreme social-distancing mandates. What makes us think the the situation is any less dire here in the USA? Norway has fewer cases and deaths than us and they are responding far stronger.
If you are still apathetic or a doubter or not really all that concerned, that’s okay, no judgment; I respect that we are all on our own journeys here. What helped me conceptualize the pandemic was a simulator, put out by the Washington Post, that provides a model for each of the results that could potentially play out should Americans respond in the following ways: Free-for-all (we do nothing), Government forced quarantine, Moderate distancing, and Extensive distancing. I think it speaks for itself. Why Outbreaks Like Coronavirus Spread Exponentially, and How to “Flatten the Curve” by Harry Stevens.
Hang in there everyone! I really hope this doesn’t turn into a really terrible situation here in the United States as it has in other places. It must be incredibly scary for anyone who is sick right now. We are only in control of our own actions so let’s do what we can, communicate with those in our spheres of influence, and help each other out where we can.
And always, keep running, keep getting outside and breathing that sweet fresh air.
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