Run this town

This is what Parkrun is about – promoting the benefits of being active and having fun along the way.

Parkrun is a global organisation that together with sponsors, organises free, weekly 5km timed runs around the world. Over 266 Parkruns have been started around the globe in the UK, Denmark, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, the US, Ireland and South Africa.

Here at home, Parkrun South Africa has over 7 000 runners who participate in Parkruns across the country where runners can appreciate the beauty of the outdoors.

“By engaging in regular exercise, people can prevent developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Importantly it has such a positive impact on ones quality of life.” says Dr Craig Nossel, Head of Discovery Vitality.

Cape Town has recently been named SA’s Fittest City according to the Vitality Fittest City Index, and one of the features that helped Cape Town to claim top spot was its outdoor facilities that encourage physical activity. The index was created to increase awareness around the health be-nefits of physical activity, and provide insight on what our cities can do to improve their fitness.

This initiative will also help to generate healthy competition between cities to motivate behaviour; to provide information around the built environment and resources that encourage activity and to set policies which will encourage individuals and communities to be physically active.

Vitality has partnered with Parkrun together with sponsors Adidas and Blue Label Telecoms.

“Anyone of any age and any fitness level is welcome at the Parkrun events, whether you are a runner, jogger or walker,” says Nossel.