Backstraight Boys (& Girl) Athletics Chat
Sports & Recreation
#35 - Freezing Temperatures, Warm Hearts, and Hot Takes: Backstraight Does Parkrun
As we hit 'publish' on this episode, 1,810,242 runners have - over the last 14 years - given up their Saturday morning lie-ins to cover an astonishing 120 million kilometres of parks worldwide. It is in no way hyperbolic (and, trust us, we know all about hyperbole on this show) to describe parkrun as a global phenomenon, and we had a myriad of questions about the mass participation sensation: is it good for athletics? is it really more of a 'run' than a 'race'? what's it like to volunteer at one? and, how on Earth has Bayo not done one yet..? In search of answers, we roped in Danny Norman - host of the hugely successful parkrun podcast, 'With Me Now', and tourist extraordinaire (612 runs at 266 different events, and counting) - and headed down to Southwark Park. Tail Walkers, Event Directors, 1st-Placers, and even the 11-year-old who beat Bayo with a Tirunesh Dibaba-esque finish - we spoke to as many people as we could, and have produced (we hope) a happy hodgepodge of parkrun: a veritable smorgasbord from what was a really inspiring and insightful morning. Thank you to everyone at Southwark Parkrun for having us, to Danny for getting involved, and to you for listening. As per, let us know your thoughts via a review, or dropping us a tweet: @BackstraightB and @Claire_GThomas. Finally, if you haven't already, go and parkrun. Trust us; it's fabulous.
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