Local Man Wonders Whether He’ll Ever Be Able to Return to Using Running as Pretext for Meeting Strangers for Anonymous Sex in Wooded Areas
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As recently as three months ago, Larry Craig could wake up on any given morning, lace up his running shoes, and head to a local park to meet strangers for hot, urgent, anonymous sex.
And then came the coronavirus.
“I literally can’t remember the last time I was able to just spontaneously decide to go for a ‘run,’” said Craig, 40, a political consultant, using his fingers to make air-quotes around the word run. “I used to ‘run’ two, three, sometimes four times a week.”
“No more.”
Instead, Craig said, he’s been largely confined to his home as he awaits an end to his state’s stay-at-home orders. And he’s not alone—according to experts, anonymous sex hot spots such as public restrooms, roadside rests, and wooded areas in or near suburban parks have virtually dried up since the onset of the virus and the social-distancing guidelines put in place to contain it.
“Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be able to go ‘running’ again,” he said. “It’s depressing. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, I guess, to stay safe.”
