Laurentian University sports psychology professor completes marathon after long COVID diagnosis

Laurentian University professor Robert Schinke spent much of his career as a sports psychologist helping Olympic athletes achieve their goals. After he was diagnosed with long COVID, he applied that advice to himself.

In May, Schinke completed the Sudbury Rocks Marathon in 3 ½ hours at the age of 60, beating the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon by 20 minutes. Months earlier, he said he had to train near his home in case he couldn’t complete a short run.

Schinke said he was first diagnosed with COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, while on a cruise with his family.

He said both he and his wife got quite ill, but their symptoms didn’t persist after.

About a year later, though, while working with the Canadian Olympic team, he said he got COVID a second time.

“I went out for a run one morning, just four or five kilometres. I could barely do anything,” he said.

“And then I came back and I was really sick and had, like, ear ringing. I was completely seized up in my muscles.”

Those symptoms persisted for over a year. Schinke said he also had symptoms similar to rheumatoid arthritis.

At his lowest point, he said he had lost more than 15 kilograms.

A clinical diagnosis

Dr. Angela Cheung, a senior scientist at Toronto’s University Health Network and expert on long COVID, said there is now a clinical diagnosis for the condition.

If COVID symptoms go on for two months or more and aren’t related to other underlying conditions, it’s considered long COVID.

“If you see enough patients I think it’s not that difficult to diagnose,” she said.

Cheung said there is currently no cure for long COVID, but physicians are trained to treat the various symptoms, whether they are migraines or fatigue.

She said there are people who go on to make a full recovery.

“So it can go away,” Cheung said. “It’s not something that once you have it, you always have it.”

Running to recovery

In his youth, Schinke competed for Canada in equestrian. In the previous decade he said he started running, and had completed many half-marathons before his COVID diagnosis.

Because his symptoms stopped him from being as active as he had been before getting sick, Schinke said it also took a toll on his mental health.

“I really wasn’t happy at the time,” he said. 

“I was really struggling with the fact that I couldn’t get out, burn off energy, which is the reason why I do running. It helps reset me a little bit and is a balance in my life.”

To regain that balance, Schinke said he hired local ultra-marathoner Helen Francis to coach him.

“It was really slow and there were a lot of relapses,” Schinke said. “I couldn’t complete the workouts and had to have a lot of stops.”

To reach his goal, he said he applied some sports psychology best practices to his own training.

“I sort of just shut off my mind and any internal monologue and just focused on the process,” he said.

“And that’s what I’ve always preached to my athletes as well. The amateur and professional athletes who really go far are process-oriented people.”

Now that he’s completed his first full marathon, Schinke says he wants to improve on his time.

“I’ll probably run it a little less liberally, a little less conservatively,” he said.