I have known about Parkrun for many years but have only had the Parkrun bug for the past year or so. I have friends who regularly attended Parkrun but the 40 minute drive for me to join them seemed a bit far when Saturday morning came around. Unsurprisingly I never made it there. There were probably Parkrun events much closer to home but I didn’t bother to look and maybe my fondness for beer and late nights also had something to do with it.
Parkrun is a totally free 5km walk or run event held every Saturday morning at 8am in Australia (a bit later in other countries) and run by volunteers. All you need to do is register once before your first Parkrun to get your barcode that you will use at any Parkrun worldwide. Parkrun was started by Paul Sinton-Hewitt at Bushy Park in London (UK) and is now so popular in the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa that, if you live in those countries, you will most likely find a Parkrun event near you. Parkrun is also held in major centres in a lot of other countries including the USA, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Austria, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Poland which makes it a great travel activity when you are visiting another city. Some adventurous folk even travel to other citys and other countries simply to add another Parkrun location to their list.
The internet is awash with countless stories of how Parkrun has transformed peoples lives helping them to overcome illness, addiction and low self-esteem simply by becoming more active, committing to the weekly activity and being spurred on by the inspiring demonstration of determination and grit of other Parkrun participants. I don’t know of another place where you will find such a diverse selection of the community exercising together. There will be keen runners at the front with their bright running kit and uber expensive Nike Alphafly running shoes vying for the fastest time, but overwhelmingly Parkrun participants are everyday folk simply challenging themselves to be healthier and more active. One of the most inspiring aspects of Parkrun for me is seeing older people, sometimes in their 70s, 80s and 90s staying active, pushing themselves and proving that age is no barrier to exercise. I have seen Parkrun participants using walking sticks (not the kind you buy from a hiking store) and my local Parkrun has a regular vision impaired participant who speeds around the course with the help of a volunteer guide.
You may be thinking, “what has this got to do with the pub?”. Well, for a long while my life revolved around work and social drinking. A wind-down beer or five with work colleagues on a Friday night often dragged into Saturday morning and the rest of the weekend was spent recovering from my “wind-down”. I wasn’t the most popular person in my younger years, probably a bit of a nerd and not at all sporty but I began to feel connected with my friends and alcohol gave me the confidence to be interesting and social. If I’m honest I also just love the taste of beer and what started off as a weekend thing then also became a mid-week thing. This is not an unusual story in Australia and I expect it is also common in many other parts of this amazing planet. Whether its wine, beer or something even stronger, Aussies love to drink. When I hit 40 the beer, pizza, curry and lack of sleep started to catch up with me. I was overweight, tired and starting to get aches and pains that I wasn’t expecting at least until my mid 60s. I’m no medical expert but it was pretty clear to me that my lifestyle was not working well for me and things needed to change. So I changed. Whilst it was not my intention to kick the alcohol completely it turns out that I now only drink alcohol once every couple of months and this makes me a pretty boring drinking buddy. Over time friends move on and life changes. I thought that all the cool kids were at the pub and I thought I had found my social place in the world. I loved going from place to place on a Friday night meeting up with friends, eating and drinking too much and having too good a time, but after cleaning up my act the fast lane just wasn’t for me anymore.
Now that I have re-discovered Saturday mornings this is where Parkrun comes in. While I’m sure there are some Parkrun participants with sore heads from a few too many the night before, I would wager that most Parkrun participants have not been on the turps the night before and maybe they even got a good nights sleep.
During an overseas trip I decided to give Parkrun a go in Scotland and I am very glad that I did. I had run many times before up to half-marathon distance so I knew 5km would not be an issue for me. It was great to be out running in the Scottish winter but what I found truly inspiring was being with hundreds of everyday people at all levels of fitness early on a Saturday morning walking, jogging and running. I finished 106th out of 148 participants in my first Parkrun and from the moment I finished I felt refreshed and was looking forward to improving on my time at the next one. Fortunate to be travelling at the time I instantly became Parkrun tourist attending Parkruns in Glasgow, London, The Hague, Berlin, Vienna and Boston before returnign home to Adelaide where my Parkrun journey continues. Parkrun is a timed event but it is definitely not a competion. Just turning up and being as active as your body permits is definitely the aim of the game. Parkrun has become my new weekly ritual and keeping my Friday nights low-key definitely helps.
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