Today I did my first ever park run. For those of you who are not familiar with it, park run is a 5km run organized once a week at a local park. It’s a global movement founded in 2004 in the UK. Today park run events are organized in 21 other countries. It doesn’t cost you anything to be a part of this community and it’s open to all. I registered for park run last month after being convinced by a friend to give it a try. For one whole month I kept putting it off for various reasons including not wanting to wake up early on a Saturday morning. A month later, I finally did my first park run. It was amazing! I had a very early start to the day – I had set my alarm for 5.45 am (yes, you read that right). I caught a bus at 6.30 and reached Centennial Park by 6.45 in time for the 7 am start. Even while walking from the bus stop to the park, I couldn’t believe I was going to do this. Before the run began, there was a first timers’ briefing during which they explained how park run works. We then had the run director share some fun facts about leap days/years. Today’s run was the first ‘leap run’ in the history of park runs. It felt rather fitting to be doing something different on a leap day 😊 After the briefings, we started the run. There were over 300 runners today and they were diverse in terms of age, gender and pace. There were people running with dogs and some others with prams! You can take part as a group, with people you know, or you can turn up on your own. It is also entirely up to you to either run, jog or walk. All that matters is that you wake up early on a Saturday morning and get to the park. There were times during the run when I wanted to stop but I kept going. I may have stopped if I had been running on my own. Despite it not being a race against other runners, running with a crowd helped me push myself to keep running. The volunteers were also very encouraging. When I was close to the end of my run, there was one volunteer who really urged me to run faster and I did. As soon as I finished the run, I felt slightly nauseous and very tired, but these feelings were soon replaced by joy! I was so pleased with myself for having done my first park run 😊 I am determined to make this a weekly habit. Running helps me stay fit both physically and mentally. It gives a much-needed boost to my mental energy levels. It’s also a good way to kick off the weekend after spending a week tackling various challenges as a PhD student. I can assure you it’s a better feeling than sleeping in 😉
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AuthorBudding climate scientist from Sri Lanka, currently pursuing a PhD on heatwaves, at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at UNSW, Sydney. Believes in using effective science communication to bridge the gap between science and society :) Archives
June 2021
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