Olympic hopeful Drew Hunter is used to training alone. Running for others is something new.
Drew Hunter usually runs against the fastest distance runners in the country, often in front of a stadium of screaming fans. On Thursday, he will run two miles around a track in Virginia's Fauquier County with nobody present except his immediate family, his little brother running alongside him for a few laps and his father pacing him on a bike. He still knows he will not sleep the night before.
Hunter, a 22-year-old who turned professional straight out of Loudoun Valley High, likes to call his time in self-isolation "the revival of what matters." If not for the novel coronavirus pandemic, Hunter would be preparing for the U.S. Olympic trials with a real chance to make it to Tokyo - he qualified for last summer's world championships at 5,000 meters. But those two miles will matter to Hunter for different reasons.
"Running can sometimes be a very, very selfish endeavor," Hunter said. "And I don't want that right now. I want it to be for other people."
Hunter will run the two-mile time trial at 5 p.m. Thursday to raise money for Real Hope for Haiti, a charity that benefits the underserved in that country. Donors will pledge a dollar amount for every second he runs under 9 minutes. If someone pledges $2 and he runs two miles in 8:45, $30 would go to Real Hope for Haiti. Hunter's mother will record him on his Instagram account so people can watch live.
Hunter's parents adopted his older sisters, Trisha and Vania, from Haiti. They are now nurses at Fairfax Hospital, on the front lines of the covid-19 fight. When Hunter decided he wanted to raise money for health-care workers, he asked Trisha and Vania what made the most sense. They explained that Haiti could become a coronavirus hotspot, and with little health-care infrastructure, the country would need money more desperately than most anywhere.
The idea to stage an event came to Hunter recently, during videoconference calls he participates in with local cross-country teams. He listened to kids grow surprisingly vulnerable about how much they missed racing and how isolation had changed their lives. It made Hunter want to lift spirits for those in the running community, even if they didn't have the means to donate money.
"I'm just using what I'm good at to raise money for a good cause," Hunter said. "If it's something you need, you can just come on to my Instagram at 5 p.m. on Thursday, you can watch me run for 8½ minutes. If that makes you smile or makes you motivated to go for a run the next day, that counts as a win."
By providing a spiritual lift to others, Hunter also will give himself a physical challenge. Hunter never ran in the world championships last fall. He suffered a torn plantar and broken cuboid in his right foot after making the team at the U.S. championships.
He has rehabbed since last fall, and the cancellation of every competition this spring means Hunter has not run publicly in almost a year. The time-trial idea injected a competitive spark into Hunter's training.
"To be honest, I'm terrified," Hunter said. "I'm putting on spikes for the first time in 10 months. That's crazy. It's also a reminder of why I do this. That feeling of when you have nerves, when you have that, that's a feeling to your core that you care about this. 'I'm so nervous. How do my legs feel? Am I prepped?' That's why we do this: to have these feelings. I have that. I feel like I've lost a little bit of that."
Hunter, whose two-mile personal best is 8:25, hopes to run somewhere between 8:30 and 8:40, but he's entering without expectations.
"I'm just excited to celebrate my own health," he said. "Sometimes we take running for granted. I have no idea what time I'm going to run."
Hunter typically trains with the running group Tinman Elite in Boulder, Colorado, but he has moved back home to live with his parents in Virginia while isolating. Distance running is an ideal sport for social distancing, and his training hasn't changed much. Rather than running with roommates and friends, he now runs alone. It reminds him of how he trained when he was younger, and how he first became an elite runner.
"I've always had a lot of love for that lone-wolf grind," Hunter said. "I've always got a lot of confidence and swagger from that. It's good to remind myself of my roots."
While Hunter has been living with family, he has not seen his sisters since he moved back home. Their potential exposure to the coronavirus makes it too risky, even if they take precautions. Hunter knows Trisha and Vania will be watching him online this week. He will be running by himself but for them.
