I have often thought when the right time might be to make a concerted effort to get my kids into running or sport in general. Is "making a concerted effort" even the right approach to take? What do you think?
I know that my end goal is for my kids to find a sport or athletic activity that they enjoy doing. The aim has to be that they enjoy taking part in sport so that they think of it as a pleasure rather than a chore. I don't think many people would disagree that, now more than ever, it is very important to ensure that we have regular physical activity in our lives, as so much of our time is spent in a sedentary way.
I couldn't possibly say whether that was the approach my parents took, whether they ever considered regular exercise to be a desirable outcome, or whether it was just by chance that I was lucky enough to be reasonably good at most sports that I tried and therefore got the necessary encouragement to make it pleasurable. In my case I believe it was more luck than judgement.
I have always tried not to push my kids into sport. If anything I have taken a far too neutral stance on the subject. I was always a footballer myself - for school, clubs, university, semi-pro and so on, but I have hardly even tried to get my boys to play at all. Even kickabouts in the back garden have been limited. Only because they have never really shown any interest, but this does show how little I have pushed them.
My kids are well aware of how much I enjoy sport. They know full well that I "go running" and "do parkrun". My hope has been that this will gradually rub off on them.
We were lucky enough to get tickets to take the kids to the Olympics and Paralympics and we also made sure that the kids saw plenty of the action on the TV. Not that the TV watching part of this process is in itself making them active. But hopefully the end justifies the means. One of our big hopes from this was for the kids to realise just how many different sports there are out there to interest them, or perhaps for them to become good at.
After the Olympics the evidence was there that this had had a very positive impact on the kids. They were spending days in the garden using anything they could find lying about to use as a javelin (cricket stumps and sticks), a discus (frisbee), hurdles (upturned buckets and sticks). Even diving was attempted - off the slide into the paddling pool (this event was quickly discouraged on safety grounds).
Better than this were the games played after the Paralympics. This Paralympics may have shown the world what amazing athletes Paralympians are, but the real legacy is that now we have a new young generation, with no pre-conceived ideas, whose greatest exposure to people with disabilities has shown them simply as the amazing athletes that the Paralympians are. Seeing and hearing the kids playing paralympic sports as Jonnie Peacock, Richard Whitehead, David Weir, Oscar Pistorius and many others was just simply brilliant.
In my next blog post I will follow this up with how this summer has changed my kids desire to get active and even get out running.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Monday, 17 September 2012
It must be about time....
...to get this parkrunfans blog going again!
I admit that I have been very slack on this for a while and like an unfed plant, the blog has withered to almost to the point of extinction. Well I have decided that now I will put some effort in to get it going again. After all, I must get back to spreading the word about how amazing parkrun is!
So, what's new with me, my parkrun experiences and my running in general?
Well the biggests news (not that is new news, just that its newer than when I was last updating this blog), is that after years of adamantly saying that I would never join a running club, well of course I finally saw the error in that judgement and joined a running club. I'm so glad I did.
M reasoning had always been that I didn't need to join a running club, I can just go out and run whenever I want. That was true. I also said that parkrun was more than enough for me, that was still close to being true too. I also told myself that training on my own was perfect for me. That is still true to some degree, but it is so much easier and much more fun training with others. At a running club you are bound to find other like-minded individuals, with similar abilities and goals and this can only serve to drag you on to improve.
To be honest I am still unable to immerse myself fully in all that the club offers, but over time I hope that this will gradually change. With a young family it is not always easy to find the time for running. I am doing well to make one club training session a week, and not every week. I have been offered many chances to represent the club at various interesting events, unfortunately I am yet to do so. One day this will change I'm sure.
So what have I got out of joining the running club apart from the training sessions? The camaraderie for one. The club handicap races have also been fantastic. I had never even been aware of the concept, but now it has me hooked. Even this last weekend, a recent injury was not enough to keep me away. I just had to be there, even in a marshalling only capacity.
And for all of this, I have parkrun to thank. There is absolutely no way I would have become serious about running without parkrun. Coventry parkrun came along at just the right time for me, over two and a half years ago. parkrun got me hooked on running and then introduced me to the club that I now call my running club.
If, like me, prior to parkrun you weren't really into running, but now find yourself hooked, I can wholeheartedly recommend taking that next step. The step you never thought you would take. Go for it, join your local running club and you will not regret it.
Joining a running club doesn't require that you be a dedicated or serious runner. You don't need to be winning your parkrun each week. Anyone and everyone is welcome. Just so long as you like to run, then you will be welcome at your local running club. It is almost inevitable that your parkrun will have some connection to a running club, or that there will be club runners at your parkrun. Runners are normally pretty approachable when it comes to talking about their club, so don't be daunted.
Thank you to parkrun for making me realise I should join a running club!
I admit that I have been very slack on this for a while and like an unfed plant, the blog has withered to almost to the point of extinction. Well I have decided that now I will put some effort in to get it going again. After all, I must get back to spreading the word about how amazing parkrun is!
So, what's new with me, my parkrun experiences and my running in general?
Well the biggests news (not that is new news, just that its newer than when I was last updating this blog), is that after years of adamantly saying that I would never join a running club, well of course I finally saw the error in that judgement and joined a running club. I'm so glad I did.
M reasoning had always been that I didn't need to join a running club, I can just go out and run whenever I want. That was true. I also said that parkrun was more than enough for me, that was still close to being true too. I also told myself that training on my own was perfect for me. That is still true to some degree, but it is so much easier and much more fun training with others. At a running club you are bound to find other like-minded individuals, with similar abilities and goals and this can only serve to drag you on to improve.
To be honest I am still unable to immerse myself fully in all that the club offers, but over time I hope that this will gradually change. With a young family it is not always easy to find the time for running. I am doing well to make one club training session a week, and not every week. I have been offered many chances to represent the club at various interesting events, unfortunately I am yet to do so. One day this will change I'm sure.
So what have I got out of joining the running club apart from the training sessions? The camaraderie for one. The club handicap races have also been fantastic. I had never even been aware of the concept, but now it has me hooked. Even this last weekend, a recent injury was not enough to keep me away. I just had to be there, even in a marshalling only capacity.
And for all of this, I have parkrun to thank. There is absolutely no way I would have become serious about running without parkrun. Coventry parkrun came along at just the right time for me, over two and a half years ago. parkrun got me hooked on running and then introduced me to the club that I now call my running club.
If, like me, prior to parkrun you weren't really into running, but now find yourself hooked, I can wholeheartedly recommend taking that next step. The step you never thought you would take. Go for it, join your local running club and you will not regret it.
Joining a running club doesn't require that you be a dedicated or serious runner. You don't need to be winning your parkrun each week. Anyone and everyone is welcome. Just so long as you like to run, then you will be welcome at your local running club. It is almost inevitable that your parkrun will have some connection to a running club, or that there will be club runners at your parkrun. Runners are normally pretty approachable when it comes to talking about their club, so don't be daunted.
Thank you to parkrun for making me realise I should join a running club!
Monday, 23 July 2012
Gunnersbury parkrun (and parkrun raiding)
Been on a few parkrun raids around SW London recently, so have a few more course descriptions to post.
To summarise the difference between parkrun raiding and parkrun touring: as you may imagine, raiding is more belligerent. The aim is to appear as if from nowhere and hand out a ruthlessly unprecedented beating to the locals on their own manor. Should you fail in this (and I've never actually succeeded yet) your back-up is to at least make it to the cafe in time to swipe the last Twix bar. I've never succeeded in this either. If I'd lived in the time of the Vikings, I would have been the one who got seasick and cocked up everyone else's rowing rhythm.
That dismal confession completed, here's my impressions from my trip to Gunnersbury parkrun #39.
Gunnersbury Park is located directly off junction 2 of the M4, presumably making it a great favourite with parkrun tourists (or raiders) from Swindon, Bristol, etc. I thought it looked rather splendid, with high stone walls and aged trees. The drawbacks are some steps in disrepair and a couple of old buildings that look like they should just be given over to the triffids. In particular, if I ever went in the museum, I think I'd have to boil myself afterwards.
I also wasn't a fan of the unisex toilets with the 'smart' (ie. despotic) sinks which dole out a prescribed ration of soap, water and hot air (in roughly that order) when you stick your hands in them. It's only a short step from machines being the arbiters of our personal hygiene to them knocking on our door, asking if we're called Sarah Connor, then lighting us up. I'm just saying.
Nonetheless, Gunnersbury Park is a lovely location and well worth a visit when you're not lurching around in a pair of Asics, trying to keep your breakfast down. Other on-site attractions include miniature golf, a boating lakeand hare coursing.
The parkrun, which began last October, is evidently in good health with attendance over 100 in all but one event thus far this year and latterly pushing towards 200. There are good links with the local running club West 4 Harriers who supplied all the marshals on this occasion, as well as a decent number of participants. Another local club in attendance was Ealing Eagles.
The course itself is a single figure-of-eight loop, beginning and ending on grass. Or it could be an ampersand, or perhaps even a slightly squashed cottage loaf. The thing is, you don't actually run it as a figure of eight. Here's how it looks from the air:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/s/routes/view/run-jog-map/hounslow/51186100
The first section, from the green marker to the southern end of the park is all downhill. You then head round the western side of the the park, up to the top, and back down through the start. At this point, you hang a left and head round the eastern side of the park, down to the bottom of the slope and begin the uphill to the finishing line, about halfway along which you have to take a sudden detour round a tree, presumably to ensure you're completed a full 5km.
This is the first course I've run on with kilometre markers chalked on the path, which are pretty handy for recording your splits. They also read out your halfway time, which is a nice touch. Despite some wretched weather, the off-road portions of the course were absolutely fine and the puddles on the pathways weren't too severe (apart from one which I almost mistook for the boating lake). There's a good variety of scenery and decent tree cover generally, apart from along the northern edge of the park and the few bits over open grass.
The course does have PB potential: I scored a healthy new best, although this was probably down to the deathmatch I was having with first lady, who overtook me with about 200 metres to go. I ended up pretty much triple jumping over the line in order to finish ahead of her, whereupon it turned out that she'd been about a minute outside her own personal best. She also had a broad northern accent, which suggested her raiding was going rather better than my own. She then went calmly off to emasculate someone else, while I lay on the floor and sobbed wretchedly.
The cafe (when I'd dried my eyes) wasn't overlarge, but seemed to cope quite well with the influx of parkrunners, seating-wise. As with most parkruns, queues for coffee can grow rapidly, so it's worth hurrying over from the finish if you've got anything left in your legs.
DO: Keep an eye out for the surprise tree on the stretch up to the finish
DON'T: Be handed a ruthless beating by other raiders
***
LINKS
Blog post by abradypus
Blog post by fairweatherrunner
Blog post by kirstylirsty
Gunnersbury parkrun home
Gunnersbury route on Mapmyrun
West 4 Harriers
Ealing Eagles
To summarise the difference between parkrun raiding and parkrun touring: as you may imagine, raiding is more belligerent. The aim is to appear as if from nowhere and hand out a ruthlessly unprecedented beating to the locals on their own manor. Should you fail in this (and I've never actually succeeded yet) your back-up is to at least make it to the cafe in time to swipe the last Twix bar. I've never succeeded in this either. If I'd lived in the time of the Vikings, I would have been the one who got seasick and cocked up everyone else's rowing rhythm.
That dismal confession completed, here's my impressions from my trip to Gunnersbury parkrun #39.
Gunnersbury Park is located directly off junction 2 of the M4, presumably making it a great favourite with parkrun tourists (or raiders) from Swindon, Bristol, etc. I thought it looked rather splendid, with high stone walls and aged trees. The drawbacks are some steps in disrepair and a couple of old buildings that look like they should just be given over to the triffids. In particular, if I ever went in the museum, I think I'd have to boil myself afterwards.
I also wasn't a fan of the unisex toilets with the 'smart' (ie. despotic) sinks which dole out a prescribed ration of soap, water and hot air (in roughly that order) when you stick your hands in them. It's only a short step from machines being the arbiters of our personal hygiene to them knocking on our door, asking if we're called Sarah Connor, then lighting us up. I'm just saying.
Nonetheless, Gunnersbury Park is a lovely location and well worth a visit when you're not lurching around in a pair of Asics, trying to keep your breakfast down. Other on-site attractions include miniature golf, a boating lake
The parkrun, which began last October, is evidently in good health with attendance over 100 in all but one event thus far this year and latterly pushing towards 200. There are good links with the local running club West 4 Harriers who supplied all the marshals on this occasion, as well as a decent number of participants. Another local club in attendance was Ealing Eagles.
The course itself is a single figure-of-eight loop, beginning and ending on grass. Or it could be an ampersand, or perhaps even a slightly squashed cottage loaf. The thing is, you don't actually run it as a figure of eight. Here's how it looks from the air:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/s/routes/view/run-jog-map/hounslow/51186100
The first section, from the green marker to the southern end of the park is all downhill. You then head round the western side of the the park, up to the top, and back down through the start. At this point, you hang a left and head round the eastern side of the park, down to the bottom of the slope and begin the uphill to the finishing line, about halfway along which you have to take a sudden detour round a tree, presumably to ensure you're completed a full 5km.
This is the first course I've run on with kilometre markers chalked on the path, which are pretty handy for recording your splits. They also read out your halfway time, which is a nice touch. Despite some wretched weather, the off-road portions of the course were absolutely fine and the puddles on the pathways weren't too severe (apart from one which I almost mistook for the boating lake). There's a good variety of scenery and decent tree cover generally, apart from along the northern edge of the park and the few bits over open grass.
The course does have PB potential: I scored a healthy new best, although this was probably down to the deathmatch I was having with first lady, who overtook me with about 200 metres to go. I ended up pretty much triple jumping over the line in order to finish ahead of her, whereupon it turned out that she'd been about a minute outside her own personal best. She also had a broad northern accent, which suggested her raiding was going rather better than my own. She then went calmly off to emasculate someone else, while I lay on the floor and sobbed wretchedly.
The cafe (when I'd dried my eyes) wasn't overlarge, but seemed to cope quite well with the influx of parkrunners, seating-wise. As with most parkruns, queues for coffee can grow rapidly, so it's worth hurrying over from the finish if you've got anything left in your legs.
DO: Keep an eye out for the surprise tree on the stretch up to the finish
DON'T: Be handed a ruthless beating by other raiders
***
LINKS
Blog post by abradypus
Blog post by fairweatherrunner
Blog post by kirstylirsty
Gunnersbury parkrun home
Gunnersbury route on Mapmyrun
West 4 Harriers
Ealing Eagles
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