Running Diary :: Week 1 - first ParkRun

At the beginning of the year I decided to take my healthy a bit more seriously, although I am healthier than I was a few years ago, having given up smoking 4 years ago and pretty much cut out alcohol.

What I still need to work on is my weight – being very tall I can carry quite a bit of weight without appearing to be overweight. This weight then impacts both my back and my knees. I have made a good start and lost 12KG’s this year – so now 108Kg – pretty happy with that, but trying to get to 95Kg – so still a bit to go.

My wife found out about a very interesting organisation called parkrun – from their website "parkrun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world. They are open to everyone, free, and are safe and easy to take part in." So we signed up to participate in their first run in our town.

Firstly I was quite surprised at the turnout – was expecting around 50 as not only had it been raining the previous evening, being the middle of winter, 08H00 is a pretty early start for a Saturday. Turns out there were over 450 – although a lot were runners from other “clubs”. Chatting to a lady from Tableview – it seems going to other runs is very popular. She had gone to at least 6-7 and another lady said she had done a couple in England.

You can purchase t-shirts once you have reached the milestones of 10, 50 and 100 parkruns – many were running with these.

The initial idea was just to support my wife – I do play tennis a few time per week and play in a social tennis league. That said, it’s a different kind of exercise – short, quick runs but not really maintaining an elevated heart rate for a length of time. I am beginning to think I could do with another form of exercise.

I was never a good runner as a child – I used to get a pain deep in my shoulder. Not only that, have back problems and foot problems although using built up arches have helped. So not be planning on setting the running world alight with my blistering turn of speed! But will be happy with middle of the pack finishes.

We walked the one on Saturday – really just got a time down and had a chat to those around us. In fact, finished 425th out of 446 – so really just propped up the back. The plan is to take 2 minutes a week off for the next 10 weeks – at 37 minutes I guess we will be jogging the whole way. We also going to have a mid week 5km walk.

Overall I am very impressed with the Parkrun organisation and kudo’s to their sponsors for making this possible. They do also need volunteers for the events – they suggest volunteering every 10th race or so – so will be looking to do that. But for those looking at starting running, this seems the ideal way to start.

Next time will take my camera..