We need each other. More than ever. It’s always been obvious.

But we can’t be together in the pub, at a gig, a gym, the office… even the outdoors.

I did my last boot camp on Monday and won’t return until restrictions are lifted. We hope it’ll be December but who really knows.

Doing outside exercise has always been about being with others. I’m not a huge talker, I don’t always have much to say, I tend to listen, smile, laugh. You get that in the pub and I’m a massive fan of that too, but with exercise you get that release of endorphins, which triggers a positive feeling similar to morphine, apparently.

There have been many times I’ve gone to exercise after a day of pessimism – when I feel like the world is a rotten place and won’t get better – and I’ve finished the session feeling brighter and able to frame things better. It happens every time; it’s like a super power.

You‘ll more quickly find an earthly thing kept from the earth than you will a person cut off from other human beings

Marcus Aurelius

Towards the end of lockdown #1 I stopped exercising and I paid for it. Working from home, not seeing my friends and colleagues, has been tough and I became a mess. One afternoon, following a demanding shift, home schooling and a particularly awful Nottingham Forest match, I just broke down in tears… Heavy floods of tears. It was at that point I realised I wasn’t well. I could have exercised on my own but I missed the motivation of others, the feeling like you’re all in it together and the shared relief, positivity, at the end.

I found a new boot camp and started feeling better, stronger and happier. It has grown in three months and in the worst of weathers it has kept a hard core base of people. Because we all know it’s good for us. It’s fun.

It will be back and so will Parkrun and all the other events that bring people together and make them happy.

The one thing we’ve learned from the pandemic is that we need each other. We need to take care of each other.

It’s what humans do.

So why are you sat at home?
You’re not designed to be alone
You just got used to saying “no”
So get up and get down and get outside

Frank Turner, Reasons Not To Be An Idiot