By no means one to waste a spare second, Matt Fitzgerald clambered into the second row of his Mazda CX-90 on a latest weekday morning and cracked open his MacBook in order that he may work on one other e book.
Mr. Fitzgerald, 52, is many issues — author, public speaker, coach — however largely he’s prolific. He has written or co-written 34 books, most of them about operating, endurance sports activities and diet. He writes early. He writes typically. He writes quite a bit.
“Typically I do really feel like I’m doing B-plus work on a dozen issues versus A-plus work on three or 4,” he mentioned. “However I’m who I’m. There’s at all times a few issues the place I attempt to give the very best of myself at any given time, and I assume that’s sufficient.”
Mr. Fitzgerald has the form of slim, athletic construct that hints at one other a part of his identification: distance runner. He has been prolific in that space, too, ending 50 marathons — his quickest in 2 hours 39 minutes 30 seconds. And, as soon as upon a time, he would have been jogging on the quiet, snow-dusted street in Flagstaff, Ariz., the place he had parked his sport-utility automobile.
As a substitute, Mr. Fitzgerald was ready for John Gietzel, a 48-year-old enterprise marketing consultant from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to complete loosening up in order that he may shut his laptop computer and coach him by a collection of hill sprints. As for himself, Mr. Fitzgerald has barely exercised in three years.
“I in all probability wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t gotten sick,” Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned. “However I’ve discovered it surprisingly rewarding.”
Mr. Fitzgerald’s bout with lengthy Covid has, in vital methods, pressured him to reshape who he’s and what he does. Within the course of, he has discovered vicarious pleasure by beginning a enterprise referred to as Dream Run Camp out of his house in Flagstaff, the place he lives along with his spouse, Nataki, and a rotating solid of leisure runners who pay between $45 and $115 a day to remain in certainly one of 4 visitor bedrooms and be coached by him.
“I’m attempting to create a occurring,” mentioned Mr. Fitzgerald, who shared his long-term imaginative and prescient: “Quick ahead just a few years, and everybody on the planet has heard of Dream Run Camp, and there’s this mystique about it and it’s all good vibes.”
He organizes group runs each morning. He has “coach’s workplace hours” each afternoon when he emerges from his writing lair to supply PowerPoint shows on subjects like “Disrupting Complacency” and “Onerous Enjoyable.” Mr. Fitzgerald’s campers, whom he calls “dream runners,” can keep for nevertheless lengthy they like, as much as 12 weeks.
Mr. Gietzel, who has a job that permits him to work remotely, is staying for a few month in order that he can prepare for the Mesa Marathon on Feb. 10. Mr. Fitzgerald plans to be on the end line.
“There’s some type of magic right here,” Mr. Gietzel mentioned. “I’m already feeling it.”
Mr. Fitzgerald had no approach of understanding it on the time, however he now believes that the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2020 modified his life. He had traveled to Atlanta to make some promotional appearances forward of the occasion after which race within the Publix Atlanta Marathon the day after the trials. “That weekend was a lot enjoyable,” he mentioned.
After returning house, Mr. Fitzgerald fell in poor health. His spouse quickly acquired sick, too. They each imagine they’d contracted Covid, although all of this occurred earlier than the provision of at-home assessments and earlier than widespread authorities shutdowns.
“We each stayed house and recovered, as a result of hospitals have been packed,” Nataki Fitzgerald mentioned.
Mr. Fitzgerald felt horrible for a few month — “It was by far the sickest I’d ever been,” he mentioned — earlier than he slowly resumed his previous lifestyle. Actually, he was operating and exercising with out concern by the summer season of 2020.
“After which it began to unravel in mysterious methods,” he mentioned. “My neurological signs simply turned showstopping. I couldn’t do something. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t create a coaching plan. I didn’t wish to work together with folks.”
A lot stays unknown about lengthy Covid. Whereas there is no such thing as a take a look at that determines whether or not signs like fatigue, mind fog and chronic complications are a results of the virus, lengthy Covid can persist for weeks, months and even years, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Whereas Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned his neurological points had improved in latest months, he nonetheless experiences power fatigue and “post-exertional malaise,” which means that something involving bodily effort leaves him feeling terrible.
“Precisely the illness you need in case you’re an endurance athlete,” he mentioned.
Early final 12 months, he felt adequate to attempt to ease again into operating. After six weeks of steadily constructing his workload, he was capable of jog for half-hour.
“After which the underside dropped out once more,” mentioned Mr. Fitzgerald, who has not jogged past quick distances since.
It has been disorienting for somebody whose whole life revolved sports activities. He recalled certainly one of his fondest experiences as a runner, when he spent 13 weeks coaching for the 2017 Chicago Marathon as a self-described “pretend skilled runner” with HOKA NAZ Elite, a Flagstaff-based workforce of world-class distance runners. Mr. Fitzgerald concluded his time with the workforce by operating a personal-best time for the marathon at age 46, and by writing a e book about it referred to as “Operating the Dream.”
As Mr. Fitzgerald struggled with the consequences of lengthy Covid, he mirrored on that have in Flagstaff. He knew he may not run — at the least, not anytime quickly — however he may envision a option to keep concerned, by utilizing his experience to educate others.
After convincing his spouse that they need to uproot their lives in California and transfer to Flagstaff, which is a high-altitude mecca for runners, Mr. Fitzgerald welcomed his first campers — sorry, dream runners — final Could. He has hosted about 30 up to now.
“I’ve recognized him to be somebody who delivers on his concepts,” mentioned Ben Rosario, the chief director of HOKA NAZ Elite.
Operating camps should not precisely a novel idea. Steph Bruce, an elite distance runner, and her husband, Ben, have a weeklong camp for runners in Flagstaff every summer season. There are numerous others throughout the nation.
The distinction with Dream Run Camp is that Mr. Fitzgerald’s dream runners dwell in his home.
The partitions are adorned with art work of prime runners. There’s a communal restoration space with a hyperbaric chamber and a contraption referred to as a vibroacoustic remedy mattress. His storage is outfitted with high-end health gear. The yard encompasses a sauna and a small pool for train swimming. Mr. Fitzgerald and his spouse dwell in an connected guesthouse.
“It’s a troublesome factor to advertise,” he mentioned. “‘Come to Dream Camp, and be somewhat bored! It’ll be nice in your operating!’
“However there’s some fact to it. I see individuals who come right here who’re type of clenched from their regular lives, and after they’ve been right here for just a few days, they’re liquid.”
Whereas Mr. Fitzgerald appears to have made peace with a few of his limitations, he can not settle for being a bystander eternally.
Simply after midnight on New Yr’s Day, he padded downstairs to his laptop in order that he may join the Javelina Jundred, a 100-kilometer ultramarathon in Fountain Hills, Ariz., in late October. Mr. Fitzgerald acknowledged how incongruous it sounded.
“I actually can not run one step proper now,” he mentioned.
By the use of rationalization, Mr. Fitzgerald cited Charles Barkley’s closing season within the N.B.A. After Mr. Barkley ruptured his quadriceps tendon in an early-season recreation, he vowed that he could be again.
Certain sufficient, about 4 months after sustaining his damage, Mr. Barkley returned to play in a single closing recreation, scoring a basket on a putback. He left the court docket to a standing ovation.
In his personal approach, Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned, he needs to do the identical. He even has a working title for a e book that he needs to write down: “Dying to Run: An Ailing Athlete’s Quest for One Final End Line.”
“I’m not doing this as a result of I’m recovering,” he mentioned. “I’m doing this as a result of I’m not recovering.”
Mr. Fitzgerald doesn’t anticipate to race, per se. He solely needs to complete inside the occasion’s 29-hour cutoff, even when which means strolling the course.
“I can simply survive,” he mentioned.
