Clued Up Runners: How hard is it to stick to the rules?

Why we all need to follow the lockdown rules

If someone had told you in 2019 that the Government of tomorrow would be dictating when you're allowed to go outside, you'd have assumed that either war had broken out or you'd inadvertently mistaken the plot of a Tom Cruise blockbuster for real life.

But this is real life, in its most terrifying form. We are living through the third wave of a pandemic that has fundamentally changed the way we live and which, on its current trajectory, is set to get worse before it gets better.

So I am struggling to understand why, when the news is so bleak, so many of us still think that we can interpret the rules as we wish, to suit whatever circumstances we choose.

While on my long run this Sunday - alone - I found myself diving into bushes, scrambling across the uneven edges of trails and taking to the puddles in order to avoid large groups of people and children walking together. Of course, I could be wrong. They could all have been innocently walking together in their nominated bubbles, but I must have missed the societal shift that has made it common place for three sets of forty-something couples and their nine children to live together.

Granted, some of the adults were making an effort to walk two-metres apart, but again I feel that they must have mistaken metre-rules for standard rulers in their interpretation of the social distancing guidance. Their awareness of other trail-users - namely myself - meanwhile, was non-existent.

For some reason, every group I encountered at the weekend was walking away from me as I approached. With the early encounters I would therefore either cough loudly (probably not the most appropriate tactic in hindsight) or scuff my shoes on the gravel to make the party aware of my presence. Without exception, this failed. By the end of the run, I was therefore simply shouting "behind you" in pantomime fashion to make them move. This would result in a scattering of the party across the whole trail, forcing me to stop and wait until they had the sense to move in a common direction and allow me enough space to pass.

Why is this happening? Why are people still not following the rules?

As someone who embraces the outside and recognises its value in terms of our physical and mental wellbeing, I can’t help but feel that breaking the rules is at the least selfish, and at the most both illegal and morally indefensible. Even if the chance of you contracting coronavirus or inadvertently passing it on is as slim as Donald Trump's chance of having his Twitter ban overturned, there is still a chance. You may never see or hear of the damage that is caused as a result of your actions, but that extra trip out might just end up bringing tragedy to the door of an entirely innocent family. Gathering in groups just exacerbates this tenfold.

As the staggering number of hospital admissions and deaths continues to rise, and as Professor Chris Whitty takes to every known form of media to hammer home the stay-at-home message, the consequence of these people's actions could mean tighter restrictions for us all.

Outdoor exercise once a week? Curfews every evening? No one wants to get to that stage. So come on people, play your part and stick to the rules.

Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives. Watch Netflix. Easy.

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