Our government are constantly pushing the agenda for healthy
active living. Increased exercise,
eating less sugar and having a more balanced lifestyle are apparently the
perfect ingredients for living longer and relieving the ever stretched National
Health Service. I wholeheartedly agree with all of those factors and do my best
to live by them for my own benefit. So you can imagine I was outraged when I
heard the news that a Westcountry Town Council have decided to charge runners
taking part in the weekly free ParkRun.
For those of you who are unaware ParkRun is an event
organised by volunteers every Saturday morning in public parks around the world.
It is a marked 5K route that participants can enter for free online, printout their
barcode and turn up to join hundreds of likeminded individuals for a run, walk
or jog.
It was us, the UK that lead the way with this initiative, originating
in Bushy Park, London. Countries across the world have followed suit and
totally embraced this regular mass participation event. In February I had the
opportunity to join a Parkrun in Johannesburg, South Africa, I was blown away
by the sheer numbers on that start line,
a total of 1060 runners completed the 5K. Just think the concept started right
here in the UK, we should be proud.
What example are we setting to the rest of the world, if we,
a country spending billions of taxpayers money promoting the increase in
physical activity , start to charge participants for the opportunity to get out
and run? Think back to the “thisgirlcan” campaign, Sport England threw money at
this in the hope of getting us out doing more exercise. Surely all those efforts
are being contradicted if we can no longer join likeminded people for a free 5k
run once a week.
