I went for a run outside, and it felt strange in the age of COVID-19.

Now that I finished my final exams for the term and year, I can take a break or time off. This break feels welcome, and it's a time to keep moving in other ways. I'm picking up learning French again, learning James Bond on the guitar and spending more time reading. I was fortunate to be able to go outside today and glad I had more time. I kept my distance, was protected and tried to be a friendly runner that switches sides to aid others. I had a goal to run 10 km, and I've been leading up to this by running from 2km and increasing it gradually each time.

As I ran, the town's lack of socialisation and closure of shops, schools and banks was becoming less strange and more routine. But as I had begun to get in my run, I began to notice something. A lot of people were staring at me. I mean I understand that you get occasional looks from drivers and other pedestrians. There aren't positive or negative connotations associated with it. It just happens. Today, I didn't see many other people out, and it was also cloudy all day so fewer individuals ventured outdoors. Yet, it was a good look, a focused stare, a confident intrigue into my choice: to go for a run, in these times. After a while, I realised it wasn't a coincidence that a large number of people glanced. At one point, I looked back at a driver in a black SUV as I was walking across a side street, and we locked eyes for a good 6 seconds. Ordinarily, I feel people look away, and the eye contact doesn't last that long. I don't know to be honest why I looked back, but it felt like an aggressive stare.

I wanted to know why he was staring. I chose his opinion to speak for the rest of the gazers. Later, I ran down side streets in a residential area off the main road. I passed one lady, and she was friendly, and we exchanged greetings. A few mail vans drove by too, nothing spectacular. As I turned a corner, people started to appear in my vision again. A lady stopped as she was walking back into her house and paused from a long distance at me. A couple of other neighbours were regular though. Another lady opened the door and seemed to point and gesture to somebody inside that they should run like me too. I don't want others to be made to run, but I'm happy to promote it. Some girls were unenthusiastically sitting on a porch as I ran past too, just as it started to drizzle.

People looked, but what did they see? Did they observe some entertainment on an otherwise dull, unsurprising routine day in COVID-19 times? Maybe, they were confused or held a strange feeling that they could repeat my choice and exercise. Or even the opposite and telling me I couldn't stretch my legs and I should always stay inside. Perhaps, it was a hope that things could return to normal soon enough. People's judgement or sanity is deteriorating. I know mine has been, and this stretch outside has been improving my mental health and experiencing this outside shows the difference in human relationships and perhaps a greater involvement or investment in the limited times we interact with someone new. Each interaction carries notable weight in our days now. So at what first used to be a glance, is now a prolonged gaze. You feel like you can communicate via eye contact, speaking welcoming or insulting sentences with each eye twitch. As if you both knew each other, but you don't, and they drive off in a black SUV under a cloudy sky.