Let’s talk about ……… Runsome.
Every so often I’m going to take a week off from blogging about My Journey to 100m and to discuss something more generic, running based of course.
The first in the Let’s Talk About series is about Runsome, https://runsome.org/. It’s something I became aware of during 2020 and have been involved in ever since. The concept is simple and in fact something we have all probably done at some point in our lives, albeit not necessarily running but walking. Those short journeys we do on a regular basis. A quick trip to the local shop to pick something up, the school run, a prescription pick up and so many more. Most peoples natural habit now is to jump in the car.
A lot of these trips are less than 2 miles there and back. The perfect distance to do a brisk walk or a gentle run and get the 30 minutes of activity that we know we should do. And the benefits are of doing the journey on foot are many. Some fresh air, a chance to get out and enjoy the outdoors, a break from tech, no worries about parking (school runs are notorious for this). Not spending £20 when you only went to get one item! You do that trip to the shops on foot you won’t overspend!
The goal is simple. To inspire more of us, whoever we are and whatever we look like – to #RunSome everyday journeys, errands and commutes. During the various lockdowns especially the first one where we were told 1 hour of exercise only, people got into the habit of getting out and enjoying walking and / or running. The roads were so quiet, and it felt good to be outside and seeing other people out and doing the same.
The beauty of runsome is that it doesn’t require a fundamental change in lifestyle. It doesn’t intrude too much on everything else going on in our lives, yet it can be so beneficial. It doesn’t have to be a solo activity. Runsome with your other half, your parents, your children, your friends and so on. Get into a routine and a good habit with others and encourage people you know to think about not being so reliant on the cars, especially for those really short journeys. Journeys that when we were kids, we would do on foot.
Like so many other great initiatives out there to encourage people to get into running (we’ll talk about those as well); the focus is on doing it at the pace you are comfortable with. If you can run it all, great. If you want to walk some of it and run the rest, that’s fine too. Like all the ways available to get into running, there really is no right or wrong way to go about it. You just need to want to do it and get into a routine.
Could you park further away from your destination and walk or run. If you use public transport, something I used to do was get off the bus about 3 or 4 miles from home and run. Admittedly I am a very keen runner so this isn’t something you would do when new to running but it’s certainly something to try to build to. And it’s not something I would do every day. It was very much once a week but a great way to get a runsome into your week.
I remember as a kid the long walks to school, or so they seemed. When I moved to secondary school I carried on walking to school, deciding that I didn’t want a lift or get the bus. At university we walked everywhere. From the halls of residence to the main campus, to do our supermarket shopping to go grab some food. Admittedly, as students we were on a budget so walking as many journeys as possible was the sensible thing to do. It’s also why I probably got into running to a small degree whilst at university but just never maintained it.
Whenever I’ve been abroad whether to rural Punjab in India with non-existent public transport as a kid, to Vancouver, to Paris on a school trip, the Lake District, Dubai and so many other places, getting around on foot was the natural thing to do; regardless of how good the local travel network was. It feels good to walk in the sun of Dubai, in the fields of Punjab, the rural beauty of the Lakes. Yet ask us to a mile journey on foot in areas we know so well and the natural inclination, sadly, is to do it by car.
During the pandemic I made the daily trip to my local Gurdwara one I did on foot, approx. 2 to 3 miles depending on what route I took. Ordered something from Amazon? Instead of waiting all day for it to turn up – why are we always last on the deliver day right? – I get it sent to an Amazon locker within a 2-mile radius so I could run it there and back. Of course, this is a bad idea if you’ve ordered something heavy and / or cumbersome, but it can be a nice challenge if you want it to be.
If we look at where we live and work, we are in a country with lots of green areas to run in, a great path system and pretty safe ways of crossing over, and even under, roads. The more people that can get into runsomes the more it becomes part of the conversation, the more local councils, regional mayors, and the national governments will have to sit up and take notice. How good was it to notice the lower pollution during lockdowns? It felt so good to run near main roads and to know I was taking in cleaner air.
There is a very important thing about that doing a runsome that can really help people get into running and ditching the car for a journey or 2, and then 3 maybe even 4. I know when I tried to get into running the first few times the big question I had was “Where do I run? How do I work out a route?” With runsome there is none of that. You already have the purpose for your run, which is to replace a car journey, go to point A and then come back home. You may decide to run the route you would drive or take side streets to avoid running by a main road. It gives you some freedom from having to create a route.
And of course, with all the great running initiatives out there to promote a place for running e.g., Parkrun, Couch to 5K groups, Run Talk Run and others that may be more localized, anyone can do this. That is the beauty of running, it’s something we can all do.
You may not want to become a regular runner. You may have no interest in using Runsome to build to something bigger. And that’s absolutely fine, although you may find you change your mind! Your focus may be just to ditch that car for a few regular trips and be active instead. To just exercise the mind and body and use it to run an errand or 2. And there is nothing wrong with that. The beauty of runsome is that it does help with physical wellbeing, especially if done with other; it’s great for mental wellbeing with the control and freedom runsome can give you. But just as important the environmental impact. Imagine if you could encourage others to do the same. Do a runsome instead of relying on your car for every journey. Of course, long drives you will need the car, but is it too much to do a runsome a couple of times a week?
I don’t believe it is. Millions of others don’t. The Runsome network doesn’t and hopefully we can really make Runsome become bigger in 2022.
Check out the video done for Runsome in conjunction with Runners World featuring Charlie Webster.
https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a36542532/runners-world-runsome/
Usingh Bolt - Endurance Runner 