Never one to waste time, Matt Fitzgerald climbed into the second row of his Mazda CX-90 on a recent weekday morning and opened his MacBook to work on another book.

Mr. Fitzgerald, 52, is many things, including author, speaker, and coach, but above all, he is prolific.He has authored or co-authored 34 books, most of which are about running, endurance sports, and nutrition. He writes quickly. He writes well. He writes a lot.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m doing a B-plus job on 12 things and an A-plus job on three or four things,” he said. . “But I am me. There are some things that I always try to do to be my best self, but I think that's enough.”

Mr. Fitzgerald has a slim, athletic build that hints at another aspect of his identity: a long-distance runner. He has also achieved great results in this field, having completed 50 marathons, his fastest time being his 2:39:30. And once upon a time, he would have parked his sport utility vehicle and jogged down a quiet, snow-covered street in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Instead, Mr. Fitzgerald waited for John Gietzel, 48, a business consultant from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to finish relaxing. That way I could close my laptop and coach a series of hill sprints. As for Mr. Fitzgerald himself, he has barely exercised in three years.

“If I hadn't gotten sick, I probably wouldn't have done this,” Fitzgerald said. “But I found it incredibly rewarding.”

Mr. Fitzgerald's long battle with COVID-19 has forced him to reshape who he is and what he does in important ways. Along the way, he found vicarious joy by starting businesses such as; dream run camp He moves out of his Flagstaff home where he lives with his wife, Nataki, and a rotating cast of recreational runners who pay between $45 and $115 a day to stay in one of four guest bedrooms and are coached by Nataki. Ta.

“I'm trying to make things happen,” Fitzgerald said of his long-term vision. Everything is in a good mood. ”

He organizes a group run every morning. He holds “coach office hours” every afternoon, when he emerges from his writing retreat to give PowerPoint presentations on topics such as “disrupting the status quo” and “hard fun.” Campers, whom Fitzgerald calls “dream runners,” can stay as long as they like, up to 12 weeks.

Gietzel has a job that allows him to work remotely, and he has been staying for about a month for training. mesa marathon Mr. Fitzgerald will be at the finish line.

“There's a certain magic here,” Gietzel said. “I'm already feeling it.”

Fitzgerald couldn't have known it at the time, but he now believes the February 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials changed his life. He traveled to Atlanta for a promotional appearance prior to the event and competed in the Publix Atlanta Marathon the day after the trials. “That weekend was a lot of fun,” he said.

After returning home, Mr. Fitzgerald became ill. His wife also soon became ill. Both believe they contracted the coronavirus, but all of this happened before at-home testing became available and before widespread government shutdowns.

“We both stayed home to recover because the hospital was full,” Nataki Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald felt terrible for about a month, which she said was “the sickest I've ever been,” but then slowly returned to her normal lifestyle. In fact, he was running and exercising without any problems until the summer of 2020.

“Then everything started to unravel in mysterious ways,” he said. “My neurological symptoms became alarming. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't write. I couldn't make a training plan. I didn't want to interact with people.”

There are still many unknowns about the long-lasting new coronavirus. There is no test to determine whether symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, or persistent headaches are caused by the virus, but COVID-19 can last for weeks, months, or even years. There is a possibility that it may continue. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mr Fitzgerald said that although his neurological problems had improved in recent months, he still suffered from chronic fatigue and “post-exertional malaise”, and anything that involved physical effort made him feel terrible. Told.

“This is exactly what you want if you're an endurance athlete,” he says.

Early last year, he felt better and tried to ease back into running. After he gradually increased his workload over six weeks, he was able to jog for 30 minutes.

“Then the bottom fell out again,” Fitzgerald said. He hasn't jogged more than short distances since then.

For someone who has spent his entire life in sports, it was disorienting. He recalled one of his most memorable experiences as a runner. That was during his 13 weeks training as a self-proclaimed “fake pro runner” for the 2017 Chicago Marathon. hoka naz elite, a team of world-class distance runners based in Flagstaff. Mr. Fitzgerald ended his time with the team by setting a personal best marathon time at age 46 and writing a book about it.carry out dreams”

Fitzgerald reflected on his experience in Flagstaff while struggling with the lingering effects of the coronavirus. He knew he couldn't run anymore (at least, not right away), but he envisioned a way to stay involved in the sport by using his expertise to coach others. I was able to.

After convincing his wife that they should uproot their California life and move to Flagstaff, a mecca for high-altitude runners, Mr. Fitzgerald welcomed his first campervan last May – dream runners. I'm sorry but… So far, we have hosted about 30 cases.

“I knew he was someone who would bring his ideas to life,” said Ben Rosario, executive director of HOKA NAZ Elite.

Running camps are not a new concept. Elite distance runner Steph Bruce and her husband Ben 1 week camp for runners in Flagstaff every summer. There are countless others all over the country.

The difference with Dream Run Camp is that Mr. Fitzgerald's dream runners live in his house.

The walls are decorated with works by top runners. There is a communal recovery area with a hyperbaric chamber and a device called a vibroacoustic therapy bed. His garage is equipped with high-end fitness equipment. The backyard has a sauna and a small pool for swimming. Mr. Fitzgerald and his wife live in an attached guesthouse.

“It's a difficult thing to promote,” he said. “Come to Dream Camp to get bored!'' It's perfect for running! ”

“But there's some truth to that. People who come here are pretty nervous in their normal lives, and after a few days here, they're completely in flux.”

Mr. Fitzgerald seems to have come to terms with some of his limitations, but he cannot accept being on the sidelines forever.

Just after midnight on New Year's Day, he Javelina Jundred, a 100-kilometre ultramarathon to be held in Fountain Hills, Arizona, in late October. Mr. Fitzgerald acknowledged how uncomfortable that was.

“I literally can't run a single step right now,” he said.

To illustrate, Fitzgerald pointed to Charles Barkley's final NBA season. After Barkley tore his quadriceps tendon in an early season game, he vowed he would be back.

Sure enough, nearly four months after his injury, Barkley returned to play in his final game, scoring a basket on a putback. He left the courtroom to a standing ovation.

Fitzgerald said he wants to do the same, in his own way. The working title of the book he wants to write is “Dying to Run: An Ailing Athlete's Quest for One Last Finish Line.”

“I'm not doing this because I'm recovering,” he said. “Because I'm doing this, do not have recovery. “

Mr. Fitzgerald does not expect to race, per se. All he wants is to finish within the event's 29-hour time limit, even if it means walking the course.

“I can just survive,” he said.