MY PACE’S THINKING ON SHIZUOKA’S TEMPORARY CLOSURE REQUEST
To all of our My Pace members and others in the Shizuoka community,
I’d like to take a minute to explain why My Pace Fitness decided to follow Shizuoka Prefecture’s request for sports gyms to temporarily close until 5/17 in order to help Shizuoka battle the coronavirus.
I’ve had a few people tell me, “Many other gyms are open in Shizuoka. Why doesn’t My Pace open as well?”
The reality is that there are only 3 gym chains in Shizuoka City that chose to ignore the request of Shizuoka Prefecture to temporarily close. On the other hand, I know of at least 13 gyms in Shizuoka like My Pace that have closed to try to protect our city and prefecture of Shizuoka in this fight against the coronavirus.
In the case of My Pace, I did not decide to shutdown to protect my members. I think 99.9% of My Pace members are very healthy and more than likely would be able to withstand the effects of the coronavirus if they happened to catch it.
I decided to close down my gyms to protect the people of Shizuoka who are not members of My Pace. To protect my members’ parents and grandparents who are in their 80s and may not be able to withstand a battle against coronavirus. I decided to close down my gyms to protect the kids living near my members who may have asthma or other pre-existing conditions and may not be able to withstand a battle with the coronavirus.
Can you imagine your wife, or husband, or parents or grandparents having to die alone and without being able to say goodbye because no family members could enter the same room as them? Can you imagine not being able to hold your child’s hand or hug them and comfort them as they struggled to breathe and possibly passed away without you there? I’ve watched one of my kids go through major surgeries and been there with him while he screamed in pain throughout the night during his recoveries. As miserable as it was, I was able to be there to hold him, and he knew I was there for him. I can’t imagine how scary it would have been for him if he had needed to do that alone – nor can I imagine how miserable I would have felt not being able to be there for him.
This disease is not about you and me, it is about others and our responsibility to protect them.
Please understand it hurts Ayumi and me immensely to close down My Pace. My Pace is like another one of our children. Our members are like family to us and seeing and chatting with everyone is one of the highlights of our days. But closing our doors temporarily is the right thing to do.
The prefecture asked us to do this to help Shizuoka defeat the coronavirus. I’m sure Shizuoka prefecture and Shizuoka city would rather not have businesses shut down. The money Shizuoka is spending to support businesses who agree to help them fight the coronavirus is money they would rather be spending on teachers and roads and many other things to support our communities. And let’s be clear, although every business appreciates the support the government is offering, almost every business that has closed down to support Shizuoka is taking a heavy loss to do it.
When we get past this terrible period, and we will get past it, I ask each of you to look at the businesses that have made major sacrifices to protect Shizuoka and please support those businesses. Go to your local restaurants, izakayas, and bars that either shutdown or changed their offerings to takeout only and eat and drink a lot. Go sing some happy songs at a karaoke box that closed down for us. Heck, even go play a bit of pachinko at the pachinko parlors who closed their doors to help defeat the coronavirus.
And, of course, when you’re thinking about a gym, please come back to one of us who have done our best to protect Shizuoka.
I’m going to list up the 13 gyms I know of that have followed Shizuoka Prefecture’s order to shut down through May 17. Of course, I hope we’ll see you at My Pace, but I’ll be just as happy to hear you’ve joined any of these other gyms that have also made this huge business sacrifice to support our home, Shizuoka.
My Pace Fitness Owner
Andy Chapman
#supportshizuoka
#shizuokastrong
1) My Pace Fitness – Kusanagi and Shizuoka locations
2) Elk Fitness
3) Renaissance
4) GLANZ
5) Seishin Sports Clubs (2 locations)
6) Anytime Fitness (2 locations)
7) Alula
8) Caldo
9) Orange Theory
10) Big S
11) Holiday
12) Fit First
13) Axtos
*****If you note any gym that I may have left out, please DM us and I will make sure to add them.*****
Thank you!