Park Run

The sweat is stinging your eyes, your lungs are bursting and your legs feel like one of those Hartley Jellies Mum used to make. After 5k you collapse over the line,  a gasping, sweating, wobbly mass that was previously a human being.

So why is is Park Run so popular? We are a herd animal, or is that horses? I forget. But anyway look at the towns; we all live on top of each other and I mean close together not what your thinking 😉 A new fashion comes out and we all want it, Apple, Dyson, Sky, (that’s Media, not the big blue thing) Donald Trump (ooops!) Brexit, oh okay maybe not all of us, but you get the jist. If we aren’t following what everyone else does then we feel left out, so it’s natural that as more people take to the Park Run then more people will want to? I’m generalising when I say ALL and of course you have to consider the feel good factor that you get when all those endorphins are released coupled with wanting to improve your health and body tone 😉

But where did it come from? The short version is Paul Sinton-Hewitt on 2 October 2004 at Bushy Park in London with some friends decided to have a 5k timed run. The whole essence is community, you can run, jog, walk, take the kids, a pushchair or the dog. It’s free and it’s timed, with the results emailed to you. Last week in the UK, 15 years after that first run there were: 599 Park Runs with 155,236 parkrunners and 13,189 volunteers. If you tie that to the Couch to 5k initiative (another story) It’s no wonder some GP’s are recommending both. Paul Sinton-Hewitt must be saving the Health Service a fortune! A few weeks ago at my local Park Run, the City of Hull Athletic Club brought 68 Couch to 5k runners down. These were 68 people of all ages who had never run before completing the 9 week programme. So, if you feel a little down, if you want a bit of self esteem and if you want to run with the herd 😉 Take a look, you never know what you can do until you try xxx