Parkrun

Back in the summer, I wrote a post about my love of twilight track races because of their relatively cheap entry fees where personal satisfaction is the only prize. I complained about road races being expensive with silly t-shirt gimmicks that raise the entry fee for a product most racers can do without. In a perfect world, there would be cheap opportunities to race with no frills. 

As it turns out, there are indeed places where this pipe dream is a reality! While listening to old Marathon Talk podcasts (a great show that covers all things running that I re-discovered recently while being injured and needing something to listen to while on the bike/elliptical), I became intrigued at the frequent mention of "park runs" that the co-hosts had attended in the weekend prior to recordings. A quick Google search led me to discover the greatness of parkrun , an organization that offers free weekly 5km timed runs in over 100 parks across the United Kingdom, and 176 locations worldwide. You sign up once online (ever!), print off a barcode, and show up at any event around the world (you don't register for individual events- you just show up). Commence thrashing yourself for five hard kilometres, and later your official time will be emailed to you. The organizers even keep track of the best ever times (13:48 and 15:58 for men and women respectively, and Mo Farah doesn't even have the record!), but the only prizes given out are for attendance, to encourage people to come out each week and better themselves. Currently, over 24,000 people are showing up to these events every 7 days. 

parkrun founder and CEO Paul Sinton-Hewitt believes that no one should ever have to pay to race five kilometres, and desires every town in the world to have at least one park run. This guy sounds like he was cut from the same cloth as me! Let's stop for a second and think about the current obesity epidemic in many Western nations. Now imagine if people had an excuse to get themselves fitter with each passing week- there's nothing subjective about a 5k time; the improvements you make are in direct correlation to your improved cardiovascular fitness. Get more aerobically fit= lose weight= run fast. 

Rob Ford made a much-maligned comment a while back that Toronto's marathons, which twice a year contribute further to an already massive traffic headache, should be run in parks in the city. The logistics of such is quite laughable, especially given the huge numbers that both the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon and Goodlife Marathon draw- there is no park in the city big enough that could accommodate thousands of people running loops for 42.2 kilometres. But smaller 5K events? It would definitely be possible, as evidenced by parkruns spreading like wildfire in the UK. The idea of running 5ks in a park is genius really- the event is contained so its impact to the community is minimal, and police do not need to be hired to coordinate traffic closures. There is also the benefit of being able to run in a scenic area where the air is cleaner and the sites prettier. And while admittedly some of the UK parkrun events are run in areas where the park space is massive by Canadian standards (especially the Royal parks), there are also events where the spaces are confined and the course design has to be creative (which makes these events all the better- each course is unique based on the characteristics of the park, and no one is trying to create the flattest/fastest course possible). 

I won't go into too many more details here- if you're interested, you can check out the parkrun website I've linked. The bottom line for me is that these are the purest running events imaginable, and it is my hope that they cross the pond into Canada. One important note is for those concerned that charities and local runs would lose out on revenue: parkrun only runs 5km events, and promotes other events each week. I feel like they've got it all covered- great stuff! 

A quick update on my own running: I had a good week of training…wait, what?! How long has it been since I've been able to write that in the blog? Yes, I managed to string together 7 days of running, and while it wasn't close to my biggest mileage week ever, it was certainly a step in the right direction. I'm not holding my breath that I'll be able to avoid setbacks from here on out, but my confidence is certainly bolstered by being able to spend some decent time on my feet. 

I mentioned in a post of my season outlook in August that I'd like to have things coming together by the Vic Matthews Open in Guelph. It's incredible to think that that race is less than a week away! I'll say that as of right now I've been satisfied with how my races have gone, but Guelph will be likely be the race that brings me back to earth and lets me know where I stand two weeks out from OUA's.