Passions: My weekly parkrun ritual made me a late convert to jogging

A legacy of lockdown, I can’t do without my 5k fix each Saturday morning, writes Alastair Dalton

It is my free fitness club – with branches across the world. Every Saturday morning, I join 350,000 others in jogging round a park, in my case what must be, thankfully, the flattest in Glasgow.

It is my free fitness club – with branches across the world.

Every Saturday morning, I join 350,000 others in jogging round a park, in my case what must be, thankfully, the flattest in Glasgow.

The 5km (3.1 miles) parkrun costs nothing and anchors my week, a perpetual inspiration for me to run most mornings in preparation before it provides an invigorating start to the weekend.

I’ve not been a lifelong runner, having been given no encouragement at school, where cross-country running was such an ordeal I thought I was borderline asthmatic.

But joining my teenage son on runs round the block during the first Covid lockdown got me into it. He dropped out, which prompted me to team up with a neighbour to give parkrun a try – but with some trepidation since my wife said the jogging hordes ruined her Saturday morning walk.

Over the last two years, parkrun has become something of a multi-stage ritual for me, from the anticipation on waking, to working out what shape my body is in as I go out to get the papers, to the walk to the park, never wanting to be too early but with no option to be a moment late.

Then we’re off, and the welcome sensation of initially being carried along by the throng before the runners spread out and it’s a case of finding someone to keep up with to stop yourself flagging. The course is three circuits and there’s mental milestones all the way, like wondering why I’m doing it and whether I’ll keep going despite managing it 70 times before, to pondering whether I have anything left for a sprint to the finish.

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Parkrun is also a statistician’s paradise. The easy enrollment process – simply sign up online and print your barcode – unlocks a mine of data about your progress – and how far into the past your last Personal Best (PB) time is receding.

Getting bored of running the same course? There are some 650 parkruns across Britain alone – among 22 countries – and I’ve already clocked up four others while visiting relatives in Hampshire and Yorkshire. The beauty of it is that all are run in exactly the same way, apart from one small detail – they will unfortunately all be hillier than mine. But at least there’s no need to worry about that PB.

Alastair Dalton is Transport Correspondent for The Scotsman