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START IN THE PARK

19/05/2022 08:10:00 Chris Morgan

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A society that gets together grows together.

Such as through the church, through music and through sport. A healthy life should be a happy life. The gym is mainly for those who want the ‘pecs, quads, glutes and abs’. All those are fine but don’t remotely match the cardio-vascular health and other physiological and social benefits from running and walking together. Start in the park; that’s the park run. You’ll love it.
How, you might ask, can you love an activity that drags you out of bed for an early start every Saturday morning, and in all kinds of weather, to tackle five kilometres around a golf course? When you could be enjoying a second cup of tea and, if you’re a veteran, not subjecting to further torture your tendons, ligaments and joints; weary from decades of use. Well, fortunately, Mother Nature helps by providing the soft, grass surface of the Mbabane Golf Course. It’s only afterwards that the limbs might squeal; and you’re not alone.

The Park Run is a perfect example of what can be developed and branded from a very simple idea. There are still opportunities like these. With name protection only, you could start the ‘Sunday Stroll’ tomorrow, if you wanted. The Park Run promoters have created a brand that has taken off around the world. All the branches – Eswatini’s only one (so far) starts from the Mbabane Club – are running and walking on a Saturday morning, 8am local time. The Park Run brand has even got a Global Operating Officer!

So why has it taken off and why should that be of any interest to the many non-running and walking readers of this newspaper? Because you’re missing something rather special if you don’t join the Park Run. A gathering of around 80-120 participants can’t all have got it wrong. It’s sociable, picturesque and extremely healthy. You have a marvellous mixture of shapes and sizes, ages and hairstyles. Mingling freely, chatting to each other, are participants ranging from Nkululeko Gama who covers the route, including a one kilometre hill, in around 16 minutes, to Kathryn Moir who absorbs the beauty of the surrounding scenery while ‘tailwalking’ and taking one hour to ensure the walkers all get in.

Sponsor

The event is well organised by a caring sponsor and numerous volunteers, with cordial greetings and a short but systematic warm-up. Perhaps the outstanding feature is its totally egalitarian style. Social and financial statuses are invisible and the event is free; and you are also free to adopt whatever style of pedestrian mobility you like. And when you are tired of being free, you can try four (sorry, couldn’t resist that one). Before COVID-19 we were also allowed to enjoy free beverages afterwards. That was the icing on the cake. Hang on, it was liquids only. And you mustn’t forget the time on the clock that the walker or runner notes carefully when completing the five kilometres. You’re not really racing anyone but simply monitoring your weekly achievement in terms of minutes, and perhaps setting yourself a target each time.

Having it properly recorded by marshals, then emailed and published soon afterwards is all part of the fun of trying to keep up with, or even beat, your previous times. ‘No gain without pain’ (but not too much) is the golden mantra you dish out to the aspiring runner who you observe switching to a walk on the gentle up-slope. And if, like us older ones, you aren’t ever going to get near the best times, you have the pleasure of a recorded – and lauded - statistic which gives you a percentage rating, from the equation of age and time taken. The enforced two-year lockdown for the Park Run was lifted some weeks ago. The deprivation clearly enhanced the appetite for this very enjoyable start to the weekend. During the first three weeks of resumption, despite dreadful weather, there were still around 50 runners turning up, to brave the cold and the wet Mbabane weather. Then, when the sun came out, so did the numbers. They doubled, with almost as many children as adults. And that got me thinking; this is precisely how youngsters become great athletes, and countries have Olympic gold medallists. The children grow up enjoying this ultra-healthy mix of social interaction, camaraderie and lively exercise, with an eye on the time and who’s on their heels.

I don’t particularly like the running part of it because permanent injuries are quietly suggesting – ‘don’t’. But I especially enjoy the dream that I occasionally get, no doubt prompted by having done the Park Run that day. In it I’m running like I did 50 years ago. A wonderful feeling; well worth falling asleep to get it. But then, sometimes, I wake at the start of one of those ‘runs’, and spend desperate minutes trying to get back to sleep, for another shot of yesteryears. And failing. But it won’t stop me from turning up next Saturday.