Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #42 Parkrun – A Celebration of Community with Nick Pearson

Episode Date: December 26, 2018

 "Somewhere in peoples DNA is a desire for them to be part of a community" Parkrun began 14 years ago, with a simple concept: a free five-kilometre time-trial around Bushy Park, south west London. It was a low-key, unofficial affair with socialising at its heart. Now over 5 million people across 20 countries have registered for the event! But why has it become so popular? Nick Pearson, Chief Executive of Parkrun and guest on this week’s Feel Better, Live More podcast, explains why. He believes that community is a basic human need that has been squeezed out by our lifestyles. We all crave community and that is what Parkrun is all about. It is inclusive and it doesn’t matter whether you run, jog or walk – there is always someone behind you. Even if you can’t run, you can volunteer, which can be even more beneficial than running for your social wellbeing and confidence. In fact, because of its success in making movement accessible to all, the Royal College of General Practitioners has partnered with Parkrun to promote the wellbeing of its staff and patients.  Parkrun really is more than a health movement – it is a social movement that makes you feel part of your local community. It has transformed my weekends. If you haven’t already, I hope this podcast inspires you to give it a go! Show notes available at drchatterjee.com/parkrun Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I think that Parkrun is one of the few opportunities that you've got to get back to that basic human need. And that's why I think it crosses cultures, it crosses continents, all of those things, it makes sense. Because somewhere in people's DNA is a desire for them to be part of a community. Hi, my name is Dr Rangan Chatterjee, medical doctor, author of The Four Pillar Plan and television presenter. I believe that all of us have the ability to feel better than we currently do, but getting healthy has become far too complicated. With this podcast, I aim to simplify it. I'm going to be having conversations with some of the most interesting and exciting people, both within as well as outside the health space, exciting people both within as well as outside

the health space to hopefully inspire you as well as empower you with simple tips that you can put into practice immediately to transform the way that you feel. I believe that when we are healthier we are happier because when we feel better we live more. Hello and welcome to episode 42 of my Feel Better Live More podcast. My name is Ron Gonchatsji and I am your host. Today's episode is all about how community can be instrumental in the creation of health as I talk to Nick Pearson, the chief executive of Parkrun. Now Parkrun is a free event that has now become a global movement. It takes place in 20 countries around the world in 1,600 different locations

and is so much more than just a run in a park, as you will find out on today's show. Parkrun has completely transformed the fabric and dynamic of weekends for my family and I, and I hope that by finding out more about Parkrun and their ethos, it may inspire you and your loved ones to give it a go. Now, before we get started with today's conversation, I do need to give a very quick shout out to our sponsors who are essential in order for me to be able to put out weekly podcast episodes like this one. Athletic Greens continue their support on my podcast. Now I absolutely prefer that people get all of their nutrition from food but some people these days find it tricky to do that if they've got busy or stressful lives. Now Athletic Greens is one of the most nutrient-dense whole food

supplements that I've come across and contains vitamins, minerals, prebiotics and digestive enzymes. If you are looking to take something each morning as an insurance policy to make sure that you are meeting your nutritional needs, I can highly recommend it. For listeners of this podcast, if you go to athleticgreens.com forward slash live more, you will be able to access a special offer where you get a free travel pack box containing 20 servings of Athletic Greens, which is worth around £70 with your first order. You can check it out at athleticgreens.com forward slash live more. Now, on to today's conversation. forward slash live more. Now, on to today's conversation.

So Nick, welcome to the Feel Better Live More podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. So as you well know, I'm a huge fan of Parkrun. In fact, I'd say, I'd go as far as to say it's probably transformed the lives of me and my family at the weekends. It's a real focal point for what we do. And you are the chief executive of Parkrun. How long have you been working with Parkrun for? I joined, well, I joined three and a half years ago. But before that, I'd been working for a specialist running retailer, Sweatshop, and we had been a founding sponsor of parkrun yeah uh so we had

supported parkrun from the first event in 2004 and so at that point i'd had a 10-year relationship with all of the guys at parkrun and particularly paul the founder um so i had a pretty good understanding of parkrunners and organisations. So did it start in 2004? Started on October 2nd, 2004, yeah. Wow, I had no idea it was that old. But that's not old. That's, yeah, 14 years. Yeah, I mean, that surprises me because I think it's only come into my consciousness how was my son he's eight so i'm gonna guess for about three ish years because he was the one who spotted it for me actually he

said daddy what are all these people doing in the park and that led to me understanding what park run was yeah it's been an interesting so that that 14 and a bit years, so we just passed our 14th birthday and that 14 and a bit years is rapid exponential growth. So probably until something like 2012, the amount of park runs around the UK was relatively insignificant. So you could live in a big conurbation like Nottingham or Manchester and actually potentially not come across it at all. And 2012 saw, or just before 2012, saw a little bit of funding from the Mayor's Office in London, and that kind of almost lit a fire in terms of the event growth. So from recollection, probably about 40 or 50 events up until 2011

2012 whereas now we sit at uh rapidly approaching 900 in the uk i mean that's a huge wise isn't it um and i think on another level probably i think it reminds me a little bit about um potentially even making things like behavior change. It's like, you've got to keep doing the same things over and over again. And you're not always going to get those big leaps, but suddenly something will happen and boom, you start to reap all the benefits. Well, I think it reflects almost the accidental nature of it. So it never really was the plan. And it's not, I think it reflects almost the accidental nature of it. So it never really was the plan. And it's not, I know we spoke a couple of minutes ago about the business of Parkrun,

but it's not the business of Parkrun is to support and sustain Parkrun. And so it's never been a commercial venture. There's no money in it. There's nobody profiting in it or profiting from it. So the pace that it evolves and grows has been more or less entirely down to the demand of the public and the population. It's not being imposed or dropped into any of those communities. And so I think, you know, when you look at why it works or what's worked about it is there's been no pressure from Parkrun as an organization to push it out and make it happen. And so, you know, when you've got that ability to be as patient as you want to be, you know, event one to event two was over two years. And it's actually Paul started the event in 2004 and just wanted the one event.

And it took a whole heap of people to persuade him to push it out beyond there for him to agree to do event two. So Nick, before we go any further, I'm conscious of the fact that I've got listeners from all around the world listening to this. And perhaps you could start off by saying, what is Parkrun and what's the ethos behind Parkrun? you could start off by saying what is parkrun and what's the ethos behind parkrun so parkrun is a free weekly um uh social physical activity event um uh happens in um 20 countries around the world in around 1600 locations rapidly growing it's a uh five kilometer run walk jog delivered locally by volunteers and it's just an opportunity to get outdoors with no pressure participate on a saturday morning and start your weekend really really positively with members of your community um and uh yeah just a just a great start to the weekend yeah as someone who who who

does engage in parkrun i i would completely agree with that i think in many ways i won't say the name is misleading but in any way in many ways it's just so much more than a run in a park you know it's it's well it probably would be helpful for me to tell you that story about how it started so paul paul the founder who we still one of the most incredible guys i've ever met one of the probably the strongest value set and ethical code of anybody I've ever come across. Selfless. Everything that he does is based upon fairness and just what he sees as good in people. And so in 2004, Paul was going through a really tough period of his life. He had been made redundant from his job.

He'd had a relationship breakdown. And he was a decent competitive runner, so a 230 marathon runner. And running was the glue that was holding his life together. So he'd go to his club running nights on a Tuesday and a Thursday, and he'd get to mix with all of his friends and his social group and that was what was keeping his life together through the traumas that he was going through at that time and then he had an accident when he was running and a really serious injury and the physio told him that he was going to be unable to run for 12 to 18 months and so it kind of all fell apart for him and what he did was he reflected back on his uh in his

formative years he grew up in South Africa he was member of a club in South Africa and in South Africa that every single running club would have a Saturday morning time trial and it was the opportunity for your club to get everybody together have a little bit of a running test against yourself you it was a time trial not a race so you could test yourself you could jog you could do whatever you wanted to do and then afterwards you would spend the rest of the saturday morning socializing and and and putting the world to rights and it was almost the highlight of the week for so many of those people so he looked back on his youth and he he he really wanted to recreate that um to put that back into his life so he arranged a a free timed five kilometer run for his friends in the park on the condition that

afterwards they all stayed together and they had coffee and a chat and that they spent more time after the event socializing than they did the running was the the secondary element so so from day one it was a social intervention masquerading as a running event. That was always its intention. That's incredible. I didn't know that story, but that is literally what it is, isn't it? It's a social intervention that actually in so many ways is not actually about running. In fact, one of my sort of favorite things is that on the uh the saturday morning 5k run which i now

regularly do well i do it every week now actually if i'm at home um there's someone at the back who who runs stroke walks it and often is walking it with the tail walker yeah and you know everyone's giving her encouragement she's got a big smile on her face. I always say hi every time you go around and see her. It's like, this is great. And there's such a warm feeling of community, which is almost addictive. I think that's what keeps bringing people back week after week. You know, if you had to motivate yourself to do that, if you had to self-motivate, you know, if that lady or on a on a saturday morning had to motivate i will find an excuse a lot of the time why i can't do that yeah but the fact that it's it's happening and

then when you get there the power of the community will pull you through i think is it's it's real strength no i agree with you entirely i think that there is a basic human need for community and our our lifestyles have squeezed it out over the last generation and actually if you give people the opportunity to rally around community they do so you know there'll be a royal wedding and everybody will without a second thought they'll get their tables out and there'll be a street party people want it but modern lifestyles or it just doesn't have room for it and so i think that parkrun is is one of the few opportunities that you've got to get back to that basic human need and that's why i think it crosses cultures it crosses continents it all of those things it makes sense because somewhere in people's dna

is a desire for them to be part of a community. I think you've hit the nail on the head. Community is something that is becoming more and more absent from the way we live our lives. We've evolved in tribes. We've always lived and hunted as little groups packs communities yet we're living more and more isolated lives where we're just stuck in our own silo we we live our own lives we moved away often from where we've grown up so we're we don't have a support network around us we're you know we may have two parents who are now working and without any support and so everything is stressful

there's not enough time to see the kids, to look after them, to do the things that they want to do. And we are craving this community. And it's one of those things, you know, one thing I noticed if I think about my own local park run

is even if it's raining, people are smiling. Everyone's having a bit of a laugh with each other. And often you finish the run you're still there half an hour later chewing the fat with people having a chat with the volunteers um it really is quite incredible and you know gp practices are more and more now prescribing you you guys have just struck up a relationship with the royal college of gps that's correct yeah so it's um it's become more of a focus

for us over the last I mean you know to go back along that kind of journey it 2004 was it was an interesting moment it was a running event without any question it was a running event and if you it's um I'll send you across the picture of the original start line. It's a fascinating picture, but it's it's it represents white, middle class, middle aged runners meeting in a park and going for a run. And it but even the design at that point had this kind of egalitarian beating heart. had this kind of egalitarian beating heart. So, you know, Paul's value and values of everybody being the same meant that on day one, there was a prize for first place, there was a prize for last place. And that's always sat in the, you know, as it's evolved and changed its focus,

that, you know, Paul's value that everybody's the same and everybody should be treated the same as sat through everything or run through everything that we've done and it unquestionably has evolved into a accessible entry point into physical activity rather than the club running traditional running event that it was perhaps designed as. And as we've seen that impact, as we've seen what it can do for communities, for social cohesion, for health, for well-being, particularly for groups that would find physical activity and exercise difficult or intimidating or challenging, that has become more of a focus for us. And how we support communities in finding attainable, enjoyable social exercise

as a mechanism to support good health and prevent poor health has become really, really important to us. So the partnership with Royal College of GPs has been a real big step forward in achieving that. And I think a real validation, I think it's really significant, not just for Parkrun, I think it's really significant not just for parkrun I think it's significant for preventative health and social prescribing full stop I think it's a validation that actually preventing people getting ill is the answer or a significant part of the answer to a healthier nation. Yeah, absolutely. Are you seeing that it is moving beyond middle-class suburbia

into inner-city areas? And are we hitting all stratas of the population? We're definitely hitting all stratas. We're not hitting all... I mean, again, to go back to day one, 13 people took part on October the 2nd, 2004, in southwest London in one of the wealthiest suburbs of the UK. And it was 100% white. It was 100% between the ages of 25 and 50. It was your classic participation in physical activity, stroke running. Since that day, that participation demographic has broadened and continues to broaden.

And we become more proactive now in trying to reach out into underrepresented groups, into exactly as you say, communities that have the most economic challenges and to communities that are suffering from health challenges and individuals with long-term health conditions and disabilities but it's a it's a challenging it's a challenging fight it's not as it's you know you're you're kind of you're battling the perception I I think, all the time that physical activity should be painful, physical activity should be that kind of that whole no pain, no gain rhetoric that's run through a generation's worth of structured, formal, sporting physical activity, which is really intimidating for a whole heap of people that just feel that's not for them yeah absolutely it really is intimidating and i see this in in practice

all the time even when i bring it parkrun sometimes with my patients it's like yeah i'm not a runner yeah um 5k there's no way i could do that i'll i'll look ridiculous and i try and explain to to my patients who i talk to uh parkrun about is that it's really not like that if you can't run 5k it really doesn't matter loads of people can't run 5k just come along get involved with the atmosphere um walk a bit run for a little bit if you want to walk the way around walk the way around yeah um and i've actually got some people who actually don't run it. They just volunteer. They, they, they don't feel that they can run at the moment, let's say.

And they get a lot out of showing up each week at the same time for their local community. And the volunteering role is very, very important. We know like volunteering, doing things for others is very good for our own health. So even though it's something that we're doing on the outside for others, in some ways, you know, for people listening, this could almost be a selfish thing because if you do things for others, you feel better.

So I think that's interesting. A lot of people just volunteer. Yeah, I would say that volunteering is potentially more beneficial than participating in the 5K run, walk or jog. It's, you know, the benefits it has in terms of your self-confidence, your social well-being. And the simple fact of the matter is you are being active. And it is an entry point, you know, getting up at 7.30 a saturday morning and putting some cones out and

you know picking things up and tidying that up and taking that down you know this is activity it's activity uh not in the way that convention tells you it is but it actually is a big step forward and should be encouraged and you know we as an organization, really keen to value participation in all forms, whether it be volunteering or running or walking, because we genuinely feel there's a huge individual health benefit to all of those things. And I think the point you touched on there would really resonate with us around the benefit of volunteering being for you. You know, challenging the traditional model of volunteering, which is that, you know, you're taking a little bit of pain for the benefit of somebody else. It's we really want volunteering to be about the enjoyment

that you're getting out of it, that you are doing it for yourself and that you recognize that there are those benefits to you for doing it. Yeah, absolutely. When I certainly think that my kids get a lot out of Parkrun and I'm intrigued about a couple of things. One is Parkrun started out as this 5K Parkrun on aurday morning in a plush suburb of london and it's clearly evolved to so much more than that now yeah but what's interesting for me is i never knew about i don't think i even knew about the adult parkrun i i got introduced to parkrun with the junior parkrun which is for people who don't know which is a um a 2k park run on a sunday morning so for the first year or two maybe two years of knowing about park run i only knew about this the sunday yeah i'd go with my son with my

daughter and sometimes i'd run sometimes they won't want to run we'd walk around but what was really interesting is that it starts at 9.30 on a Sunday morning. And sometimes it'll be raining. And, you know, the sort of day which every parent knows when it's the weather's not great. It's like, OK, what can we do with the kids today? It's become a habit. So we will rock up to the local park, rain or shine, even if there's a bit of complaint or whatever. We do it and it's now become a habit where the kids know we go every week.

And often we're still in the park at lunchtime. So it's got us there. And then the kids will see some friends from school. They'll start chatting. They'll start having a play. We'll chat to some, you know, my wife and I will start chatting to some of our friends who we see.

Before you know it, you've gone for a walk, you're playing a game, maybe the football's there. And you've spent the morning outside. And that's something you said right at the start, walk you're playing a game maybe the football's there and you've spent the morning outside and that's something you said right at the start that you're getting people outdoors yeah and again we're like most of us we're sat inside an office now recording this podcast um there's something about being outside isn't there And again, it's in this world of trying to prescribe to you exactly the amount that you have to do and the amount you miss all of that, that actually, you know, 20 minutes of spending time with your family doing something fun in the outdoors has to be of more benefit to you than putting your headphones on

and running on a treadmill and and and and um and and sucking up all that goes on in that environment and kind of, you know, commoditizing physical activity or exercise in the way that we're presenting it in the last 20 years or so misses a whole raft of the benefits of what you're trying to do. So I think that, you know, it's an interesting introduction to Park Run Through You Kids. I think that there are a couple of things that we're proud about and excited about with regards, that kind of link to that story.

to that story i think that there is a real limit to the amount of physical activity opportunities that you get to do on par on parity as a family with your kids um you know it's it it's if you go and play a normal structured structured, organised sporting event, either your kids are too good for you or you're too good for your kids, depending upon what the generational gap is. What we see a massive amount of on Saturday and Sunday at Park Run is three generations, sometimes four generations, doing something really positive together and spending uh spending that amount of of time together so i think it offers

something that you struggle to get in a lot almost anywhere else i'm also really excited by what's going to happen in a generation's time when we've had 5 million kids grow up with Junior Park Run and when we've introduced them to physical activity through their enjoyment of physical activity. And I think, again, if I reflect on what's not working in terms of current health and participation initiatives, it's predominantly you do sport and physical activity as a child because you're good at it. There are winners and losers. You enjoy it when you win and you don't particularly

enjoy it when you lose and for almost everybody losing becomes inevitable so you've associated the wrong you're associated with the wrong relationship you do it because you win and as soon as you stop winning you stop doing it so no wonder people don't want to do it when they're older yeah yeah yeah um and so actually if you can find something that is regular habit forming and the relationship is based around fun and enjoyment and removing the pressure and the stresses um then i think the sustainability of it is going to be significantly changed in a generation's time. Now, of course, you're going to get 15, 16, 17, 18-year-olds that start doing other things and go off to university.

You will always get that dip in participation, but actually the propensity for the next generation to come back to it because they've enjoyed it, you know, they'll come back to something that they like doing, I think is really, really high and come back to it without fear of not winning or being judged for not winning. And all of those negative associations that a lot of middle aged people have with physical activity and sport, I think is really exciting. So we're optimistic about what that means in a generation's time. Nick, I think you're really managing to reframe a lot of potentially what we have got wrong as a society about physical activity you know we we prescribe how much you should do a week which is quite unintuitive really isn't it yeah sure you know maybe we need guidelines but on one level do we really need guidelines you know um

do we really need to be told that we need to do 30 minutes of this or you know 150 minutes of this a week i'm again i'm not criticizing i'm just just having the conversation look i agree with you i'm i'm totally 100 on your side there i i think that the challenge we've got is we're in a rapidly evolving society where habits are changing so you know in the time that i've grown up the amount of time that people spend inside, in front of their computers, the impact of fast food, everything playing catch up, trying to kind of almost retrofit a solution to change which has largely been outside of their control. And I think that there is a segment of the population that responds to that. You give them a number, they'll try and hit that number, they'll try and exceed that number. So for those, it works. However, there is also a really big group of

people, a really large number of people that it doesn't work for, that don't believe that they're capable of doing 150 minutes a week. That, you know, that sounds like it's been set, you know, 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week sounds like it's been set by somebody who's really active that thinks that, well, that's really easy, right? But for a whole heap of people, that's intimidating, scary, I can't do it. they're doing to do something to to persuade them that it can be fun that it doesn't have to hurt all of the positive things that can sit around activity movement that is good for you will go a long way towards improving the health of those groups and i think that and social cohesion as you said before this it's not just about physical health. It's about bringing communities together. It's about integration.

It's about so much more than a run in a park. Yeah, and it's not about park run either. It's not about a run in the park because that won't be the solution for the whole. It isn't our objective to have 40 million people a week doing park run. That's not the answer. It's not the solution. I think what we need is to be more empathetic. We need to be more understanding. We need to think about providing local solutions that deal with the stresses that people have in their lives,

that people have in their lives, the emotional challenges that they have and fears about exercise being too tough. They think the competence they need, they feel their competence, their individual physical activity competence isn't high enough. They feel they'll be judged and ridiculed because, you know, for a lot of them, their last experience of physical activity was school sport where that was the norm. And so understanding, empathizing and trying to come from a position of putting those challenges first rather than coming from the position of a fit and healthy group of people almost patronizing um the less fit population saying this is what we think you

should do it hopefully would see more parkrun type concepts where people can you know do free fun low pressure socially you know social physical activity in their community and and and find what works for them what was great in my local parkrun is a couple of weeks ago there was a a group that joins they all wore orange t-shirts they had been they weren't they weren't used my local parkrun is a couple of weeks ago, there was a group that joins. They all wore orange t-shirts. They had been, they weren't used to doing parkrun, but they had all together been doing the couch to 5k app. And this was their first attempt at parkrun to do 5k. And at my local parkrun, I'm not sure this is the same at all of them.

There was a little, you know, someone has, gives a little talk right at the start to say what's been going on blah blah blah and they said hey this group's here what was really incredible is that they were given such support by everyone whether you were the fastest or the slowest everyone would say hey guys you can do it you know it almost sounds a bit cheesy talking about it here in an office actually talking talking about that, but it's such a lovely environment. And I love, I tell you, I love my children seeing this environment. I love them growing up thinking, hey, isn't it wonderful that we can support other people trying to do better? But it's because it's a community event and people want to support the people around them. We naturally want it as humans, right? We naturally want to support other people. But somewhere along the line, society teaches us to be competitive and that we can. It's an egalitarian community where everybody has a value. Everybody has equal value. You know, we've challenged constantly the traditional view that the people that finish first and second are better than the people that finish 101st, 102nd.

second are better than the people that finish 101st, 102nd. And actually what you see very often is the recognition that the challenge for the people that finish 101st, 102nd or 201st, 202nd is a bigger challenge to overcome than the people that finish first and second. So what you'll often see is the couch to 5k group or whatever the group that are overcoming the biggest challenge getting the most amount of support and the most amount of recognition given that it's not about competition and that it's about community and everybody looking out for each other um i've not really thought about this before but is there an argument to say that they shouldn't be timed? And has this come up in conversations in Parkrun HQ?

I mean, what does timing the run do, do you think? Well, it does a couple of things. So I think it's not what it's not, it's what it is. And so it is whatever you want it to be. So if you want to turn up at Parkrun and not speak to anybody because you've got challenges around introversion

and being out in public and all kinds of things around self-confidence, then it's entirely fine for you to turn up two minutes before, get your hit of physical activity, pick your token up, put it back in, get out of there, run off you go. That's totally fine. There's no judgment associated with that. So it's not necessarily that it's not for fast runners. If you want it to be, you know, if you're the world record holder and you want to turn up every Saturday morning and run the fastest 5K that you possibly can, that's totally fine. But it's not just about that.

It's not not about the community thing and it's not not about the… You're catering for everyone, basically. Yeah, exactly right. I think the time thing is that it is the measure, the mechanism, by which everybody can measure their own improvement. It is the piece where you can say, today I am this amount better than I was last week or last month or last year. And what we found is that that tends to be

the predominant driver for most people, no matter where your entry point and no matter what your level of fitness, the ability to be able to say, I'm actually getting a little bit better. Or with age grading, which challenges the fact that as you get older, you naturally get a little bit slower. It allows you to say that for my age, I'm actually better now than I was five years ago or 10 years ago sure no i i like the timed elements i must admit i mean it's i actually think if anyone is listening and finds that whole side intimidating a you don't need to time it if you don't want to you don't have to submit your token or put your wristband on you just don't have to and i know

my brother has done that a few times in the past. I think more because he forgot it more than anything, but still you can still go rock up and take parts. But I think it is nice about that whole self-improvement piece. We do, all of us like, you know, as humans, we like to feel that we're improving and we like targets.

And what's great about it, I don't see that much comp if i'm honest i don't think i've seen any competition at my local park run between people now sure some people might be racing someone else i i get that but by and large it's like a competition with yourself yeah it's about can you show up each week um number one because you accumulate uh you know you you do these wonderful things like in the in the certainly for the kids there's a real celebration so once you hit i think 11 um park runs which is 11 2ks you've roughly hit your i don't know so the half marathon you you know the starts, they read out your name, you come up, you get a special wristband saying, Hey, you've got your half marathon.

That was the drive for my son for, you know, once you've done three or four, he's like, Oh, what daddy, I get a wristband. If I do six more, bring it on, let's go. And then another one at 22, then another one at 50. So for kids, I think that's really good. And then for adults, of course, you go on the runs and you see people with the red 50 park run t-shirts on. You see some of them with the, I think there's a hundred.

I think I saw one person last week with the 250. There's a few 500s. Oh, wow. I mean, that's incredible. But it's really inspiring to see that because I think all these little things, they just chip away at you

and they're like, oh, wow, that's what consistency does. Rocking up each week before you know it, 50 might seem like a long way. I think I'm only on 12 or 13 or something like that. But, you know, I must say, I quite like the idea of getting my red 50 t-shirt at some point. It doesn't, you know, it's not my main driver but i think hey wouldn't that be nice that would really show me hey that i have been consistent and managed to keep this up for a significant period of time yeah um and my brother got a reese i was so chuffed and proud of him for getting it and you know he wears it now each week and yeah i think it's

motivating for other people the other thing for me about parkrun is as a doctor i'm always looking because a lot of what i do now is about behavior change with people is how do you inspire them to make changes and often i find that we're sort of going downstream we're looking at individual little things and we're we're not looking at turning the big lever at the top which will automatically mean that other things get easier below yeah and i kind of feel parkrun is one of those big levers because it's an isolated activity you turn up to your local park what do you get by that you get outside you get your hits of nature you get your hits of community you get your hits of physical activity you've got the blood flowing around your body you get some

laughter some conversation your stress levels go down, all from rocking up at a preset time in the park. It's phenomenal, isn't it? You know, six or seven, there's probably more benefit, downstream benefits from all you have to do is simply turn up. Yeah, and again, I think that the other element is it's there every single week.

And so it's your piece of, it's the rock that exists within your life around you, around that kind of investment in you, which means that there is a decent chance that it's going to build habit-forming repetitive behavior. And I strongly believe, and we can't necessarily evidence this at this particular moment, but I think that once you start to insert regular habit-forming positive behavior, then it stimulates others. So actually, the things that you need to have in a in a in a straight line to really look after your holistic health are more likely to be focused on once you've got the dial pointed in the right direction on one and it's the same as the challenge around physical activity if you do a little bit you know forget the 150 minutes if you're not doing anything don't forget focus on the 150 minutes focus on the five minutes because when you've done five minutes 150 minutes if you're not doing anything. Don't focus on the 150 minutes.

Focus on the five minutes. Because when you've done five minutes, 10 minutes becomes easier. When you've done 10 minutes, 15 minutes becomes easier. And when you're sitting and you know that your lifestyle isn't the healthiest lifestyle, you know, that kind of, the challenge that we give as a society to people that aren't meeting the standards of good health that society says they should is that we expect you to meet these levels and and of course just about everybody that is failing to meet those levels knows that they would like to be better. What they don't see easily is a route to get there.

And telling them that, you know, these five or six things you should be doing better in your life very often makes them feel worse about things and less likely to make a change than the support and encouragement that they need. And so, you know, rather than 150 minutes, which is great for people on 140 minutes, how good it is for people on zero minutes, I don't know. Yeah, it's a great point. But five minutes is an achievable objective for a lot of that people

and then moves them on to 10 minutes. And I believe, and it's certainly been the case for me, not that I would expect that I'm the standard, the average, but I believe that if you can get one of those things pointing in the right direction through enjoying park run on a Saturday morning, I think you're more likely to move on to the second one or the third one and i think that that for a lot of people finding the stimulus to start a healthier journey can start at at parkrun yeah i think the key thing you said that was enjoying physical activity on a saturday morning enjoyment so something we've seems to have removed from the conversation around physical activity it's like you just go through the pain do whatever you do but you need to get these 150 minutes in and there's something about that isn't it about doing something you enjoy and i can't honestly say that i've not

you know i can't honestly say that on a saturday morning or a sunday morning you just don't see people with smiles on their face so there's just a good feeling around the place um i think the greatest example i've seen of it at park run is on christmas day so i didn't know you guys did that smiles on their face so there's just a good feeling around the place um i think the greatest example i've seen of it at park run is on christmas day so i didn't know you guys did that until recently and my son wants to do that with me on christmas day and i cannot wait to have christmas morning at the local park run this year can you can you believe that though can you believe that if imagine that as a as a physical activity in position. We're going to tell you that on Christmas Day, the most valuable day in your home life,

that you have to leave your house and you have to go to the park and you have to do 30, 40 minutes of physical activity. If that was imposed upon you, it would be the most despised rule in in the world but actually what we've found is it's you know this year i would imagine we'd have 50 or 60 000 people attend uh park runs on christmas morning and it's it's the biggest fun day of the year it's it's it's fancy dress and it's a celebration and it's it's you know it's a sign i think that if you pitch it right you can include so many people in doing something that's good for them but they absolutely love and enjoy and it's it's it's just an incredible celebration um and that's the magic of parkland right that you don't have to be there. You don't

have to. If you want to chill out with your family at home and not go on Christmas morning, that's fine. You don't have to be there. But as you say, 50, 60,000 people are going to rock up on Christmas day because they want to. And that is very, very different from the way we have viewed this whole drive to get people more physically active. 100% right, because they see it as adding value to their day, as opposed to an hour I won't get back. And it's, you know, that's so often what it can be. You know, I've got to go and fit my gym in.

It's an hour I'm not going to get back. Whereas actually, if it can be something that adds value to your day, adds value to your experience. And, you know, for people with families, it's a tremendous way to start a Christmas day. For people that are lonely, to be able to get out there and mix with people on a day that they would find normally more challenging, what a great way to start your Christmas day. So, no, I think it's one of the best representations of what's happening that's right and is a window of opportunity for other physical activity

exercise providers to look at you know if you can just get that mixture right people will do it yeah i think what you guys are doing is literally incredible it is transforming communities it's transforming lives um as i said right at the start it's it's transformed the dynamic of my family weekends you know i think that's the best way putting it it's it's a real focal point now every weekend and in fact if we're not going to do part when it's a big thing you know why are we not that's what we do and um i just think it's a real focal point now every weekend. And in fact, if we're not going to do part one, it's a big thing. You know, why are we not? That's what we do.

And I just think it's great modeling also for my children. And that's something as a parent I'm very aware of is that they will tend to do what they see their parents do rather than what they're told to do. That's why I kind of feel if I show up each week, if I explain to them how important it is, and they see that mummy and daddy and little sister,

big brother, excuse me, are actually doing the park run, I'm hoping that it's going to start ingraining in a habit. Yes, they may go off it at some point, but hopefully like many things, you'll start coming back to it. I'll tell you the other thing i i i feel it does is you start to take a bit more pride in your local community so because it's in our local park if we're there at other times of the week for whatever reason it starts to feel a bit more like oh that's our park that's where we do park run that's

where we go and hang out as a family. Real, something again that's missing from society. It's just that local pride that I can see in my kids as well. And I just think it's, you know, what would my weekends be like if park run didn't exist? I can't answer that because I genuinely don't know. But I suspect they'd be very different. Yeah. Well, parks are wonderful places aren't they and and you know quite rightly communities are proud of them and and actually encouraging communities to use them more to acknowledge them and and appreciate them is uh is a great thing it's you know it would be a tragedy if we were to lose a significant amount

of our parks and so um so no it's it that would that that's a important part of it yeah and you know one that we have said but for people who are not quite clear on this, they are completely free. You do not need to pay a penny to show up. You can just turn up and be involved. Yeah, completely free at point of entry and will always be free at point of entry. It's our promise to everybody that Everpark runs. And so, you know, it's about making that participation as simple as possible.

So it's a single one-off registration, no pre-booking, no telling anybody you're going. You know, if you wake up 15 minutes before the start and decide it is a week for you, then you just grab your barcode and you roll up and you run, you walk, you jog, whatever that is. Yeah, you volunteer, you help out. If you wake up and you decide you you walk, you jog, whatever, whatever that is. Yeah. You volunteer, you help out. Um, if you wake up and you decide you're not doing it, you've not let anybody down. That's absolutely fine. And I think, you know, that point that you were saying before about you,

you just don't have to do it. I think, I think that's it. It's, it's taking the pressure off you has really positive benefits around behavioral change. You know, if you don't feel under pressure to do it, I think there's a much better chance that you're going to do it. So, yeah, it's free. Your milestone T-shirt for 50, for 100, for 250, for 500 is free. And, yeah, your opportunity to meet people. You know, we see so many stories of people

using it as an access point to meeting friends and new social groups when they move to new locations. You know, what do we do to meet new friends? You can also do other ones. If you're away one weekend, you can go and rock up to your local one um i i can't support parkrun enough i for people who are listening who've never tried it before and you've you know you've you've had your interest piqued a little bit i'd strongly encourage you guys to just to turn up once see what you think

you know if you want to volunteer volunteer if you want to walk around walk around but just go and find out and experience it. As a parent myself, I would highly encourage people to look at the Junior Park Run on Sunday mornings. Are they as popular as the Adult Park Run? Are they in every location or not quite as many? So we've got about 600 Saturday Park Runs and about 250 Sunday park runs. So where Saturday park run, junior park run started in 2000, sorry, Saturday park run, 5k park run started in 2004.

Junior park run didn't really start until about 2013. So it's much younger, but is growing at a rapid rate. So I feel very lucky that there's one in my town, which is brilliant. Nick, I'm not sure how appropriate it is

for this conversation. Normally, I like to leave the listeners with some tips to really help inspire them to take control of their health and empower them to know that they are the architects of their own health. i wonder if you've got any top tips for people that we can leave them with at the end of our conversation well i wouldn't have tips i i absolutely wouldn't but my challenge would be to that group of your listeners that feel exactly as you said that 5k is too far

that they can't run my challenge would be to to let us prove you wrong, to come along, to spend some time, even if it's spectating, you know, to see the mix of people that are participating. You never come last at a park run. So you talked about the tail walker. There's always somebody behind you. parkrun so you talked about the tail walker there's always somebody behind you um it is uh it is surprisingly accessible um and of course the junior events on a sunday are also a 2k entry point for an awful lot of people so we find a growing number of adults go along with their kids and participate with

their kids because they feel 2K is more achievable than 5K. And, you know, for every hundred kids that are taking part on a Sunday, there's 40 adults that are there participating with them. So that's a growing element of what we do. But I think that, you know, that would be my challenge to the group of people that believe it's beyond them to go see what it is and to understand that there's loads of people like them and that they're not going to stand out that

they're not going to feel silly that they're not gonna that the that that they'll be supported and they'll be championed and actually if you do five minutes you do five minutes all of those things are just a move in the right direction nick i think it's better than a tip it's a really beautiful challenge for people to get out there and do that and for anyone who wants to take Nick up on that challenge do let us know on social media how you're getting on tag me tag part run I don't know if you're on social media yourself Nick yeah Nick P runs Nick P runs on Nick P runs on Twitter yeah on Twitter yeah so let us know how you're getting on we'd love to hear stories of how this podcast may have inspired you to actually give it a go so do let us know Nick I just want

to say again from the bottom of my heart thank you for creating some time today to talk to me i think what you guys are doing is so much more than a health movement it's a social movement as well and i wish you all the best for the future what a pleasure thank you so much that concludes today's episode of the Feel Better Live More podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and that it may just have inspired you to look up parkrun and consider giving it a go, whether as a runner, a walker, or even as a volunteer. You can see everything that we discussed today, as well as links to your local parkrun on the show notes page at drchatterjee.com forward

slash parkrun so do please take a look of course please do let myself and parkrun know what you thought of today's show by tagging us on social media i am at dr chatterjee on facebook and instagram and at dr chatterjee uk on. Parkrun is also on all social media channels. Doing some form of regular physical activity is one of the best ways to combat the growing problem of stress in our society. In many ways, the stress response actually primes our body for physical activity,

yet many of us are not giving the body what it is expecting as we live such sedentary lives. Volunteering is also a fantastic way of reducing our stress levels and I talk about these ideas in my new book The Stress Solution which helps you identify where stress is present in your life and most importantly I suggest plenty of simple, achievable strategies to help you lower your stress levels so that you can live a happier and calmer life. The stress solution is available to order now in paperback, as well as the audio book, which I am narrating. All international book links for my book are available at drchastity.com forward slash book. are available at drchastity.com forward slash book. If you regularly enjoy my weekly podcasts, one of the best ways to support it is to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever platform you listen to podcasts on. These reviews really do make a difference by helping to raise the

visibility of my podcast, which in turn helps me attract better guests for you. Another great way to support is to take a screenshot on your phone right now and share it with your friends and family. That's it for today. I hope you have a fabulous week. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my latest conversation. Remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle changes always worth it because when you feel better, you live more. I'll see you next time. Thank you.