ALC and Parkrun
Members of the ALC naturally have a love of the outdoors and physical activities. Numerous of us enjoy running, including the now World famous "Parkrun".
Parkrun was started in October 2004 by Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE in Bushy Park, close to the Chertsey Camping and Caravan Club site. Parkrun is a 5km fun run that takes place on Saturday mornings by millions of runners all around the world. Each runner carries their own barcode and when they cross the finish line they are handed another barcode on a token. Both barcodes are then scanned to create a finish time for the runner. By the way, this is not a competition, people can run or walk, the finish time is NOT important, taking part is! Shortly after the event finishes everyone receives an email with their finish time and position. The runs are fabulous social events, with all kinds of people taking part, it's fantastically inclusive! People are chatting at the beginning and end, often going on to a nearby cafe for coffee and cake, or whatever! It's a great boost for people's physical and mental health, there are innumerable stories of people who have used parkrun to recover from all kinds of difficulties. In my own case I was "prescribed" parkrun by my doctor in 2016 as a way of increasing my physical activity, I haven't stopped running since! Like many parkrunners I am a "parkrun tourist" visiting parkruns wherever I go, including internationally. There's even a company that specialise in arranging trips to parkruns.
We must also mention the fantastic volunteers, without whom parkrun would not be possible.
Back to the ALC connection and the recent Chertsey meet was a perfect opportunity to attend the Bushy Parkrun, where it all began. Stephen, a valuable serial parkrun volunteer, and myself, went along. There were 1500 runners there, the biggest parkrun I have ever seen! Bushy Park is a beautiful location and we thoroughly enjoyed the sunny weather. Whatever your age or physical ability I can thoroughly recommend parkrun, once you start you will never be the same again...