Huffing and puffing, I subconsciously prepare myself for the shouting. Usually when I pound the pavement near my home in south east London , I receive everything from nasty jibes about the size of my bum to glowing, but unsolicited, reviews of my boobs. But not today.
Today is Saturday and I can breathe an audible sigh of relief as I realise that, instead of hearing the words ‘nice tits!’ screeched at me, I’ll hear cheers like: ‘You’re doing great!’, ‘Brilliant running!’ and the ubiquitous, ‘You’ve got this!’ I can run freely without fear of being heckled, harassed, humiliated or worse – and that’s all thanks to parkrun . When I first started running back in 2020 it was out of sheer desperation to get out of the house during lockdown . I felt cooped up and sluggish working from home – I had two young children jumping all over me and, after a lifetime of never enjoying exercise , I suddenly craved the freedom that comes from getting outside and moving your body.
Nobody was more shocked than me when I whizzed through the Couch to 5K programme and, for the first time in my life, I felt a sense of achievement from exercise. It helped that the streets were largely deserted during the pandemic, giving me the time, space and peace to slowly but surely, become a more confident runner. But it wasn’t long before I received my first heckle.
By June 2020 I had worked my way up to longer distances. Towards the end of an 8K run, a few minutes from home and wit.
